Beyond the Veil
by Shadlith
Summary: When Sirius fell through the Gate, he never expected to be reborn. But reborn he was, into a clan just as stuck up as the family he had done so much to get away from. But hey, at least he still had his good looks, these Uchiha weren't evil, and he'd found a friend just as fond of pranking as James'd been. Complete summary in first chapter.
1. New Beginnings

_AN:When Sirius fell through the Gate, he never expected to be reborn. But reborn he was, into a clan just as stuck up as the family he had done so much to get away from. But hey, at least he still had his good looks, these _Uchiha_ weren't evil, and he'd found a friend just as fond of pranking as James had been. Of course, now his name was Sasuke, his beautiful hair looked like a duck was sitting on his head, and he was expected to be a ninja and kill people, but you couldn't have everything._

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

The last thing Sirius Black remembered before his rebirth was taking a stunner to the chest, and falling backwards through the Veil of Death. He had always made fun of it's name, how overdramatic it was. James had always claimed it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, then remarked on how appropriate that saying was.

He would always claim that his last thoughts were of Harry. He was somewhat ashamed that they were, "I always knew my family would get me killed." But his life had always been like that. Never thinking what he was supposed to, never thinking of what was really right. James and Remus had made him a better person while they were there. Well, Remus had. James had just boosted his idiocy to new heights, just as he boosted James, until Harry was born. Little Harry, whom he had loved like his own son. Little Harry who had been Voldemort's first target.

But then he fell through the veil, and after a moment of darkness, came up screaming in the brilliant light of a hospital. He was being held by a giantess, a woman with gray eyes like his, and black hair that reminded him of Harry. It was slightly saddening that it took him almost an hour to realize that he was a baby, that the giantess was his mother, that the man who looked like her was his father, the creepy child who watched with tired-looking eyes, his brother.

But they had written off his fear as the child simply being a bit on the odder side. After all, he had cried when he entered the world, and only shut up afterwards, so the minor oddities were ignored.

But as he grew older, things changed. To them he seemed a prodigy. He was, of course, he always had been, but the advantage from being a reborn soul was no small thing. Especially when the soul was the Heir of a Most Ancient and Noble House. After all, even if he had hated the lessons, he had still mastered the mind arts, and a side effect of Occlumency had given him better memory. Keeping it up was just a simple matter of meditation, which he was amused to hear increased his spiritual chakra. His parents were almost demonically gleeful at their two gifted sons, Itachi, who was had graduated by the age of seven, and Sasuke, who even though he was only a couple years old, was already disciplined enough to learn to meditate, speak, and read the various scrolls that ninja required.

But this world was too much like his last one. The Uchiha too much like the Blacks. Sirius realized that within only a few weeks. The Uchiha had a superiority complex, a love of inbreeding in order to keep themselves pure, and a pride in their profession to rival the Blacks. So what if they were proud of being Ninja instead of being Wizards? There weren't any differences that he could see. They still looked down on the muggles, even if they called them civilians. They still hated people with an unreasoning spite (What exactly was their grudge against that blond kid?) They still seemed to assume that the world owed them something (An Uchiha should be Hokage, was the mutterings he could hear).

So was it any surprise that he acted out as soon as he could? That although he never refused to become a ninja, he did everything else he could to cut himself away? That when his parents told him not to play with the commoners, he did his best to sneak out (though he got caught more often than he was used to, as they _were_ ninja after all)? That when they ordered him to cut away his emotions, he made sure to blatantly delight in his pranks? That when they demanded dignity, he made sure that it was his father's underthings that were strewn across the yard

But he was dutiful enough, his family decided. And he was, after all, a prodigy. So even if he wasn't the most respectful, his skill would still give them prestige, and his kindness might even thaw the image that the rest of the town had begun to develop of them. And besides, Itachi adored him, the prodigy who refused to limit himself, who was kind, who was, if not dutiful to the clan, dutiful and loyal to the village.

So when he went to the Academy, it was with their unconditional support. And when he met Naruto, the boy that everyone seemed to hate, they made sure to hide their scowls, and to simply inform him that running off pranking with the blonde was fine, so long as he kept his grades up, and was, above all, careful. And that meeting, that first meeting, he decided, was where it all began.

The class began in chaos, which, he had to admit wasn't that different from any other class he had been in. But it _hurt_ to be here, because it reminded him of James, of Remus, even of Peter, traitor though he might have been. Because any second, he expected James to grin at him, and offer a prank, for Remus to give them his responsible _prefect_ look before correcting them on some trivial mistake, for Peter to note the various escape routes that there'd be, the various ways they could throw together an alibi (and why else hadn't they been expelled? Because even though the teachers _knew_ it was them, they couldn't prove it, and neither the houses of Black nor Potter would ever stand for their children being thrown out without an airtight case, and of course, they couldn't toss out Peter without looking biased. Remus of course, was so damn innocent looking no one even tried.)

Sirius - _No, it was Sasuke now, because Sirius Black was dead and gone, and Uchiha Sasuke was the only one he could ever be -_ was dragged out of his brooding when a golden haired boy dressed bright orange poked him in the shoulder. "Hey, Teme." The boy asked, a cauldron's worth of nervousness behind that too-bright smile, that overly brash voice. "You mind if I sit here?"

Sirius's -_Sasuke's!- _lips twitched, and he shook his head. "Go ahead." He said, waving at the seat. "But why the insults?" Not, he freely admitted, that he hadn't heard and deserved worse, but still, people didn't usually hate him on first sight.

"You were sitting back here, brooding!" The boy said, his smile turning more natural at Si-Sasuke's easy acceptance. "You seemed like a Teme."

Sasuke snickered, grinning back. There was something about this boy that reminded him of James and Lily. Something that made him likable, despite how much the village seemed to hate him. And he reminded him of Harry, whom everyone seemed to have ridiculous expectations for (Though from looking at the teachers, their expectations for the boy were significantly less noble.). "I'm sure I was," He admitted, managing to catch himself before he trailed too far into thought. "So what's your name? I'm Uchiha Sasuke, so there's no need to call me Teme." It was a pity that his name wasn't a pun anymore, he was sure he could have found a way to work a Serious joke into there. Though he had to wonder if it'd even work in this language, so unlike his own.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the next Hokage, dattebayo!" The boy said, flashing Sasuke a thumbs up. Sasuke laughed, and grinned back.

"I'm sure." He replied firmly.

The class passed quickly, and to some extent, horrifyingly. The lesson syllabus was obviously geared toward killing. Classes focused on learning the most vulnerable parts of the body, and about half the day was spent in physical training and learning how to use the various weapons that Ninja were expected to know. That was possibly the only time that Sasuke felt glad that he was in a clan. They had already drilled him on the basics of the various combat arts that he had to learn. And it was here that his former life most shone through. Not obviously, of course, but it was the little things. The muggle martial arts training that Lily had forced the Marauders to go through meshed pretty well with the taijutsu they taught at the academy, and the Uchiha martial arts style was nothing more than adaptability training (they expected everyone to just use their bloodline ability, the copy eyes of the sharingan, to just grab whatever moves they needed on the fly). On the other hand, his mastery of wand-based dueling made him utterly incompetent at throwing weapons. The movements needed to toss a kunai or a shuriken with precision clashed with the ones he had learned to use and aim a wand. To him, a flick of the wrist lead to a drop of the weapon's tip, then a slash in order to cast a cutting curse. When he did that with a kunai in hand, it was lucky to fly more than a foot. The only reason his grades didn't drop was because he seemed to have an infinite supply of chakra, and quite reasonably argued that he could just spit even more fireballs, rather than bothering with kunai.

As the days passed, Sasuke settled in with little trouble. He befriended Naruto quickly, the cheerful boy enjoying a friend to play pranks with, and someone willing to ignore popular opinion and stay by the demon brat. The girls in the class accepted him with only a little more trouble, as Sasuke made it clear that he stood by his friends, and he was pretty and rich enough that quite a few managed to infatuate themselves with him, though they generally made it clear that neither they nor their parents liked Naruto. But even as the class grudgingly accepted him, the teachers and the adults made it clear that they were to stay away from him.

A year passed without Sasuke figuring out what secret Naruto was hiding. Unlike with Remus, there wasn't anything reliable, no full moon to track, no aversion to silverware and sickles, no strange scars... and worse, even Naruto didn't seem to know just what it was that drove everyone away, so it wasn't as if he could bluff until Naruto spilled his secrets. But beyond that little mystery, Sirius was fine. Hell, the mystery made things better, gave him something to ponder when Naruto reminded him too much of James. Even the rumblings of discontent that permeated his home couldn't keep him from being happy. After all, no one seemed to really _do_ anything but complain to each other.

Then one day, everything changed. It was dark, and Sasuke had just returned home from "stealth training" with Naruto (who still kept calling him Teme for some odd reason, promting the affectionate nickname of Dobe in return.). They'd managed to dye the ANBU's various underthings bright orange, fill their clothes with itching powder, and then lead them on a merry chase, occasionally using Henge to take each other's appearances. He stopped immediately upon entering the clan compound, glancing around suspiciously. It was ridiculously silent, and his instincts, sharpened by years of being a Hit Wizard, were blaring. He quickly looked through his memories. Was someone's birthday today? That might explain it, if for some reason the Uchiha had collectively grown a sense of humor and a love of laughter and decided to throw a surprise party. Discarding that as about as likely as Dumbledore's "power of love" theory (which reminded him that he still had no idea what happened to Harry, and no idea of how to find out), he drew a pair of Kunai and cautiously made his way deeper into the compound.

A rustling made him glance up in panic, tossing the kunai as if he about to launch a spell from a wand, and sending it flying into the bushes. He swore as he looked around. For a moment he thought he saw Itachi on a telephone pole, but he quickly disregarded it. He drew another kunai before continuing on. Then stopped, glancing around in horror. It looked like a scene from the aftermath of a battle with the death eaters. There were bodies scattered across the grounds, most of them taken out with a deadly efficiency.

He quickly checked one of them over, swearing under his breath because he didn't have a wand, and had no idea how to heal without one. Until this point, he'd almost gotten used to being without one, gotten used to the idea of fighting with the native _chakra_ instead of his magic. It was even more fun at time, he had to admit. Spitting a fireball just seemed more badass than shooting sparkles at people. But what he wouldn't give for his wand... He sighed as, after a few moments of fumbling for a pulse ("side of the neck, a very lethal place for nearly any wound for blood loss alone, but also because it can easily be turned into a sliced throat") and not finding one, he accepted they were dead. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, then continued walking, making his way to the main house.

"Sasuke... Don't come in." Itachi's voice drifted out. Sasuke relaxed. After all, if Itachi was there, then it should be safe, right? He put away the kunai in his left hand, then reached out to slide the door open. As he did, and the lights flickered on, he stumbled backwards. His mother and father were strewn across the ground, like puppets who'd strings had been cut. And Itachi was standing over them.

"Why?" He whispered. He wasn't sure who he was asking. Was he asking Itachi why he had betrayed his clan, betrayed his home, betrayed _him?_ Or was he asking the world why it was that someone he considered a brother always betrayed him? First it was Peter, and now Itachi? He had thought this world was different. He had hoped, prayed that things would be different, despite the nagging similarities. He felt his magic begin to pound in his head, flooding his body, burning in his eyes, after so long of being dormant. He raised his eyes to meet his brothers. "Wh-" he began to shout, just as Itachi's eye's flared red, a shuriken-esque spiral burning over his Sharingan.

Sasuke staggered as the genjutsu rammed itself against his Occlumency shields, but managed to hold his mind against it. He gritted his teeth as he glared at his brother. "You traitor." He managed to gasp out, finally managing to snap his eyes away from Itachi's. "How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?" He raised his kunai, forgetting for a moment that it wasn't a wand, and with a sharp jab and a spat word, sent forth the soft blue glow of the Expulso curse. Itachi's eyes widened as he threw himself out of the way, his normally impassive face turning shocked at the explosion that resulted. Sasuke, - no he was Sirius now, for only Sirius Black could cast spells, so it seemed that he'd have to get Sirius, and this wasn't a time for jokes, but he couldn't stop the hysterical laughter- made a slashing motion, sending a cutting curse at Itachi, who tossed himself forwards to roll under it.

"A new Bloodlimit?" Itachi whispered, almost to himself. "Well, little brother, you're being impressive. I sought to test my capacity against our clan, and as I thought, they were weak. But you... you have potential." He casually dodged the trio of Stunners that Sirius followed up with, still talking. "But that's not enough, little brother. You are not strong enough to kill me yet. Only when you have the same eyes as me will you be able to kill me. Only when you kill your closest friend will you achieve the power to avenge our clan. So hate me, Sasuke. Live an unsightly life full of hatred, and grow stronger! Grow so that when we fight again, you will pose a true challenge, and I will truly know my capacity."

Sirius snarled. "Shut up! You have no RIGHT to lecture me! You betrayed our family, you betrayed our home, and now you're telling me that you killed your best friend? For what? Just to 'test your capacity?'" He spat another three curses, sweeping the wand, no the kunai, it was a kunai, and how the hell a kunai was channeling his magic, he neither knew nor cared, but the kunai channeled the trio of a Reductor, a leg-locker, and a full body bind all towards his brother, who dodged them with the same contemptuous ease he'd used to dodge all but the first.

Itachi simply nodded at Sirius. "Good. Hate me, brother. And if you want to know the purpose we have, the meaning behind our cursed eyes, go to the main temple of the Nanako shrine. On the far right side, beneath the seventh mat, you will find our clan's secret meeting place. And there you will be one of the three people who hold the Mangekyo Sharingan. Then I would see a reason to let you live." He tossed a trio of kunai at Sirius, who barely managed to spit out a protego in time to keep them from hitting. "Impressive, little brother. But not good enough." Itachi whispered. Sirius blinked, then felt something strike him on the back of the head, and knew no more.

AN: ... So. This happened. No idea about my update schedual, no idea about how long each chapter will be, and very little idea where this is going. Yay for mysteries!


	2. A Little Bit of Knowledge

**Chapter 2**

The room that Sirius awoke in was white and sterile. "How are you?" A kindly voice asked from beside him. He turned his head, meeting the gaze of a man who seemed, simply put, far too old for his burdens. Ignoring his flashbacks to another ancient leader, Sirius tried to pull himself into a sitting position. The old man reached out, helping him up.

"I'm fine." Sirius said after a moment. "What happened? Itachi... I have to- I mean... did anyone...?" He clenched his fists, torn between his urge to to _getjusticeavengekillthetraitor_, and his memories of what had occurred the last time he ran off and did something so monumentally stupid as to chase down a traitor alone.

"Itachi fled." The Hokage replied wearily. "I have pronounced him an S-class missing nin for the crime of massacring the Uchiha clan."

Sirius gave him a confused look, then his eyes widened. Wait, what? "The Uchiha _clan?_ What happened?" His voice cracked, and he mentally cursed puberty. Going through it once had been enough of a chore. Doing it twice? James and Lily were laughing at him from the afterlife, he knew it.

"Itachi killed them." The Hokage replied, his voice sombre.

"What, all of them?" Sirius couldn't help but ask. It seemed inconceivable. The Uchiha clan was... well, not massive, but it was still impressively large. They had a whole district to themselves for a reason, after all.

"All but one." The Hokage replied, with a nod.

"Who?" Sirius gave him an almost frantic look, then paused. "Wait, you're talking about me, aren't you."

"Yes." The hokage nodded, then leaned forwards a bit. "I know this is a lot to ask, but we need to know. What do you know about what happened?"

Sirius took a deep breath, before sinking into his mission report mindset. It was a hit-wizard thing that he'd developed during the war. It let him distance himself from the details of what he was remembering.

"I'd just returned home after a day of pranking with Naruto. Um, he's a blond kid-"

"I know him." The hokage said levelly, "Please continue."

"Right." Sirius coughed awkwardly. Azkaban had torn at his mindscape, and while being reborn had fixed the magical portions of the damage, some of it was simply because, well, he'd been with soulsucking dementors, and that wasn't really fixable when you had the same soul. Beyond that, it'd been what, twenty years since he last did this? He was having trouble obtaining, let alone maintaining the calm he needed. "Anyways, I remember entering, and realizing it was too quiet. The Uchiha, we're... calm, yes, but this was beyond that. I drew my kunai, and made my way deeper into the residence. Then I found the first body. I checked it for vital signs, didn't find any. Moved on. I was worried about what happened to Ka-san and Otou-san. I made my way to the main compound without any problems." He frowned for a second.

"I... thought I saw Itachi at some point, but I think I was just imagining it. I was tired. Anyways, I made my way to the compound. I heard him from inside. He told me not to enter. I did anyways." Sirius coughed awkwardly again, then gave the Hokage a sheepish look. "I'm sorry, um, may I have some water? This... this is a bit hard to talk about." It wasn't as hard as it could have been, he'd never really been the break into tears kind of person, and he did already have a lot of experience with loss. The Hokage didn't know that though, so it wasn't too surprising when his face softened, and he had a nurse fetch a glass of water.

"It's no problem." The man said soothingly. "Take your time." Sasuke nodded his thanks, deciding to continue talking while the nurse got some water.

"Right. Anyways, I entered the compound. I saw Itachi standing over... over Ka-san and Otousan. I confronted him. He said he killed everyone to test his capacity. He said he wouldn't kill me, because I had potential. I fought him. He won."

"That is to be expected, unfortunately." The Hokage murmured. Sirius nodded absently, staring up at the Hokage while politely thanking the nurse for the glass she brought him. "But I had a question about some of the techniques you used during the fight. I went in there myself, after the ANBU mentioned noticing traces of their aftereffects. I didn't recognize them."

Sirius nodded agreeably again before freezing up as he realized what the Hokage was talking about. "I uh, I mean... Itachi called it a new bloodline." He finally said. "I uh, don't know anything else." That was, technically speaking, true. Magic probably did count as a bloodline, and he had no idea how in Merlin's name he'd gotten his spells to work through a kunai. It wasn't even wooden! The Hokage stared at him, making him shift uncomfortably, but finally nodded.

"I see. Perhaps you'd be willing to explain your bloodline?" The Hokage asked. "Or what you've discovered of it, of course."

Sirius frowned thoughtfully, not quite sure what to say. "I can blow things up." He said after a moment. "I know that. I also threw a couple other spe-er, Jutsus at him, but he dodged, so I don't know what they would have done." At the Hokage's raised eyebrow he quickly explained. "They appeared in the form of colored lights. But if they actually hit, I'm sure something would have happened."

The Hokage nodded, frowning at him. "Did it protect you from the Mangekyo's genjutsu as well?" He asked casually. Sirius nodded.

"Yeah. Or, I think so." Sirius was pretty sure it was just his occlumency barriers. It was times like this that he reluctantly conceded that his parents might have maybe been approaching a point with all their lessons before Hogwarts. Even if he'd hated the lessons (Bella had been there during them, and they were scarring enough without her), the occlumency had probably saved his life.

"Are you okay?" The Hokage suddenly asked. "Your family was just killed, and if you need to get it out, I'm willing to listen." Sirius blinked at him in surprise, before figuring out what was happening.

He wasn't reacting right. Not how the Hokage expected, not how he should be, which was bawling his eyes out over the deaths of his family. And he did feel bad about that. But blood never really meant much to him, and really the only one in his family he liked was Itachi. The rest of them had been at the edge of planning a rebellion, for Merlin's sake (And Sirius would know, he'd lived through Voldemort's one)! And Itachi was very much alive, though not for long if Sirius had anything to say about it. Although there was that niggling point that he did like his brother much more than the rest of his family, so was it really worth avenging people he didn't like on someone he did? He decided to put it aside. If he met Itachi, he'd find out exactly what happened, and if he didn't like the answer, he'd toss an Avada Kedavra at him. Now to actually dredge up enough hate to be able to _cast_ Avada Kedavra... but that was for another time.

And besides. Even beyond his lack of any real attachment was the fact that, well, he'd gone through the loss before already, and he didn't really like this new family much better than his last one. Though again, Itachi had been different. If Itachi had died, Sirius was sure that he'd actually have felt grief. And it was because it was _Itachi_ that had turned away, that had killed his family, that had _betrayed_ him, that he was so hurt. It wasn't so much that Itachi had turned away from the leaf and his family, it was that _he hadn't taken Sirius._ In the end, it all came back to Itachi.

"Sasuke?" The Hokage prompted, and Sirius blinked up at him, realizing that he'd gotten lost in thought.

"Oh. Sorry. No." He shook his head. "I... I think I'll be fine. I'm probably... it probably just hasn't hit me yet." Remus had always been the best at excuses. Peter _traitormurdererevilPeter_ had always been in charge of making sure they didn't need them. James and he had simply carried out the pranks.

"I see. Well if you need to speak with someone, feel free to find me." The Hokage said with a kind smile. Then his face grew solemn. "In the meantime though, we need to arrange a guardian for you." Sirius began to nod (it was reasonable, after all), before he suddenly realized, that having a guardian might actually cause him some problems.

"No." He said firmly. "I don't need one. I'll be fine on my own." He wouldn't, he knew it, but he figured he could always hunt down Naruto if things got too bad, and being able to practice magic would be more than worth it. Especially if he managed to pull off one of his better feats, like turning into padfoot, enchanting himself a broom (even if it was likely to be terrible), or apparating. And he was pretty sure that revealing any of those abilities to people whom he couldn't trust (and he couldn't really trust anyone, because every time he'd trusted someone, people had ended up dead) would be anathema to being a ninja.

"Are you sure?" The Hokage asked, puffing on a pipe and when did he bring his pipe?

"Yes." Sirius said firmly. "I don't need one. And besides, Naruto lives on his own, so it's not like it's unprecedented."

"No..." The hokage replied thoughtfully, "I suppose it's not. Very well. That's all that I needed. The med-nin will likely check you over a bit more, but as you don't appear to have any problems beyond a slight bump on the back of your head, you'll likely be sent home soon. After that, you may return to the Academy whenever you feel able. You'll be excused until then." Sirius nodded, watching him leave.

It was a couple days before Sirius felt up to going to the Academy again, but he quickly decided that seeing Naruto would probably get him out of his mood much faster than brooding in an empty house. Naruto was simply so alive, so bright, so... _James_ without any of the bad parts like the bullying that Sirius couldn't help but follow him. And besides, trying to get his animagus transformation to work had hurt just as much as it had the first time he did it, and apparition was an absolute failure, so he didn't really have anything to distract him from his misery at home.

He entered the classroom with a slight slump in his step, glaring at the fangirls who were about to mob him. As they sank back a bit (good thing he'd managed to train them to actually back off when he wanted them to, Itachi had told him horror stories about his own), he gave them an apologetic look. "Sorry," he muttered, "I'm not- can you guys just give me some room for a bit?"

"Sure, Sasuke-kun!" The pink-haired one said enthusiastically. He hid a wince. The other main one, Ino, was more subdued, a result of being a clan kid and actually, honestly, knowing him from before the academy. He gave her a grateful nod, collapsing into his typical seat between Naruto and the window.

"Hey, teme." Naruto said, giving him one of those overly bright grins. "You okay? You were missing for a bit, and I got worried, and then I brought some Ramen to the hospital but they kicked me out, so I didn't even get a chance to-"

"Breath." Sirius ordered him, a smile tugging at his lips. "I'm... I'm fine. It's just..." His smile faded, bringing a grimace. "You know what happened, right?"

Naruto's own smile faded as well, and he nodded. "Yeah. Are you gonna be okay? You can stay with me for a bit if you need to. I think I've got enough Ramen for us both."

"I-" Sirius's thoughts were interrupted by his memories.

"_You can stay with me." James said firmly, "Dad would be glad to have you."_

"Thanks." Sirius finally managed to choke out. He took a deep breath, then schooled his face into the Uchiha mask that Itachi had insisted he perfect, even if he never used it. As Iruka-sensei called roll, Sirius lost himself in the humming of his second school life.

"Wake up, Teme!" An again twelve year old Sirius groaned as he heard the shouts from outside his house. "Today's the graduation test!"

"I know!" He grumbled, tossing himself out of bed. "Give me a minute, Dobe! I need to get dressed! And eat! Also, just come in, you have a key!"

"Ehehehe... I lost it." Naruto sheepishly yelled back. Sirius facepalmed, but walked to the door and yanked it open. "Thanks!" Sirius just rolled his eyes, returning to the kitchen to get breakfast. Naruto usually ate with him, ever since he'd figured out that they charged him a lot less than they charged his blonde friend. "So what do you think the test's going to be?" He asked, bouncing in his seat.

"The same as it was the last two years?" Sirius replied dryly. They'd both taken the graduation test a couple years in advance, simply to test their skills. While Sirius had gotten close to passing, mainly failing because his aim with kunai was deemed lethally pathetic (he'd stopped even trying to learn how to toss the damn things, and just focused on getting them to fling spells reliably), Naruto had failed miserably in almost everything. Sirius had immediately decided to tutor him rather than try to get himself up to snuff with throwing, and had spent the next year correcting Naruto's deficiencies in, well, almost everything. The next year, Naruto had retaken the test, just to see if he could do any better, and gotten pretty close to passing. He'd mainly been held back due to the lack of ability to create a Bunshin and his relatively low written scores. Then he'd somehow convinced the Hokage to teach him something called the Kage Bunshin, so now they were, as far as they were concerned, set.

"Teme." Naruto whined, "Why you gotta be so boring?"

Sirius gave him an offended look, then quietly shot him with a curse to make his hair pink. Naruto stuck his tongue out, not noticing, then wandered off to cook some ramen.

The meal passed without any further incidents, and the two of them quickly began making their way to the academy, stopping only when they ran into a classmate who commented that Naruto was getting a bit too obsessed with Sakura. After Naruto realized that Sirius had turned his hair pink, and the two of them had a quick and friendly fight, they finished running to the academy, barely making it on time. As the blonde and the brunette sank into their seats, Sirius frowned. Mizuki was giving Naruto the same sort of look he had a tendency to see on his cousins when they looked at Remus. That is, a disturbing one.

The first part of the test was a written one, which he passed with little trouble. He was a bit more worried about Naruto, but relaxed when Naruto shot him a thumbs up. Then they and the class went outside for the weapons portion of the test. Naruto grinned as the teacher called his name, and managed to sink seven of his ten kunai into the targets. No bullseyes, but it was sufficient. He managed to do the same with the shurikens, so after Mizuki gave him a grudging pass, he and Sirius bumped fists, and Sirius made his way to the training area.

"You need to score a minimum of seven points to pass." Mizuki said, sounding bored. "Bullseyes are worth two." Sirius nodded nervously, grabbing a kunai. He already knew he was beyond screwed, if he did it normally, so he decided to mess with the results a bit. Muttering the levitation spell under his breath, and subtly holding it with his left hand, he tossed the kunai. Guiding it with the levitation spell, he whacked the back of it with a last second banisher to make sure that it seemed to hit the target with the right amount of force. Even with that, the hit was rather close to the edge of the target. He did the same thing to the remaining nine kunai, then to the shuriken, and was sweating by the time it was over. Mizuki raised an eyebrow at him, but nodded, apparently deciding that it wasn't worth the effort of figuring out if and how he was cheating. After all, it was a ninja school, cheating and getting away with it was a perfectly valid way of passing.

Then Mizuki lead them to the practice arenas, and Sirius swore as Iruka, who'd been waiting there, called him up first. He was still slightly tired from wandlessly (well, more wandlessly than usual, so kunailessly, he guessed) guiding twenty pieces of metal to their targets. He went up with a slight hint of trepidation, but didn't let it show. "Begin!" Iruka announced.

Sirius rushed forwards immediately, tossing his first punch as a feint, then quickly fell back to avoid Mizuki's somewhat predictable counter-blow. He narrowed his eyes, testing his opponent's defenses with quick, probing attacks that were more feints than anything. Mizuki was going easy on him, and both of them knew it. Sirius growled under his breath, but had to admit that it was probably a requirement that Mizuki do so, especially since, as a Genin, he wasn't actually skilled enough to handle him if he fought harder. Not without help, anyways. He grinned, launching himself fully into the fight. After another trading of blows, dodges, and counterattacks, he saw an opening, and delivered a swift uppercut to the teacher's chin, sending him staggering backwards, then followed with a flurry of blows while he was relatively undefended. As the last one landed, Iruke called a stop, and Sasuke stepped back, raising his fingers as he'd been taught. Mizuki nodded, tapping them with his own, and waved him off the field.

"That was great, Teme!" Naruto cheered. "But I bet I'll beat him faster." Sirius grinned.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you did." He admitted. "You've got more endurance, you can afford to take a couple blows to get your own in." Naruto was a monster in taijutsu, especially now that Sasuke had helped him fix up his taijutsu with a bastardized mix of the Academy style, some muggle self defense, and a smidge of some other styles that they'd found in the Konoha Police Force Library. When Naruto had asked why a clan full of Sharingan users bothered to make a library, Sasuke had pointed out that they didn't actually get their Sharingan until later in life, so they had to survive until then, didn't they? And the easiest way was to teach the clan's kids from the library. And considering the sheer number of techniques they'd... appropriated, the library was rather large, even if most techniques never made it into there.

"Naruto!" Iruka called as some (as far as Sirius was concerned) nameless fangirl left the stage, having given an absolutely pathetic showing.

"Ha!" Naruto cried out as he hopped onto the stage and pointed at Mizuki. "Let's do this Sensei!"

Sirius sniggered, because it was one of those things that made him see the kid as _Naruto_, not James, and it was still actually pretty funny. The fight went about how he figured it would, Naruto blocking and parrying a lot more than Sirius ever did, and bulldozing through Mizuki's defenses with sheer power. Not that it would have been enough if Mizuki had been fighting seriously of course, Naruto wasn't even a genin, and Mizuki was a Chunnin.

Eventually, Iruka called a halt, about three seconds before he had for Sirius, and Naruto collapsed in the grass next to him, grinning. "Told ya I'd win."

Sirius chuckled, ruffling his hair in the way he hated. "I know, dobe."

The rest of the matches went rather uneventfully, until around the end Sirius got bored and started amusing himself by getting into a henge contest with Naruto and Kiba (who'd won in pretty much the same style as Naruto, but with a bit more dodging). After a little bit of that, they started throwing in Kawarami's, and trying to disguise themselves as rocks, then forced the others to try to guess which one they were without poking them and breaking the illusion. Their game went on an embarresing hold when Iruka dryly interrupted, "You know, if you each throw in a couple of bunshin, we can get the ninjitsu portion done for you three."

They all chuckled awkwardly, then tossed out their clones. At Naruto's cry of Kage Bunshin, both Iruka and Mizuki's eye's widened. "Naruto, how do you know a B-Rank forbidden technique?" Iruka asked sternly.

"Jiji taught me it!" Naruto replied cheerfully. Mizuki's eyes narrowed, and Sirius's ohshitometer shot towards elven even as Iruka relaxed into his regular lecture on respect.

"So do we pass?" Kiba interrupted, prompting a chuckle from Sirius at the irony of interrupting someone while they're talking about rudeness.

"Yes." Iruka said, rolling his eyes. "I'll have to check against your other grades for your final score, but you guys pass the ninjutsu portion of the exam."

"Yes!" Naruto immediately shot up. "Here I come! Today genin, tomorrow, Hokage! Believe it!" Sirius chuckled, reaching up and grabbing the back of his shirt to tug him back down.

"Sit down, Dobe." He smiled, "And wait until we meet our Jonin-sensei, ne? We can deal with things then."

"Teme." Naruto grumbled, collapsing next to him. "This isn't something we need to wait for!"

"Sure it is." Sirius said cheerfully. "Because if he doesn't pass us, we're screwed."

"Wait, what?" Naruto whipped his head around to glare into Sirius's eyes. "What do you mean?"

"The Jonin get to test us themselves." He explained casually. "If we're not up to snuff, we get kicked sideways to desk jobs."

"And how did you know that?" Mizuki asked casually.

"I've got my sources." Sirius said mysteriously. Actually, he'd been Legilimencying literally every single person he ran into on the street for the past few years, if only to work on his mind arts in order to compete with Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan. He'd gotten lucky the first time, he wasn't afraid to admit it. Itachi had been new to his Sharingan, running on instinct and sheer power, with little opportunity to get proper feedback on what he was doing. And even then, he nearly smashed through Sirius's shields. So, having decided he was severely out of practice, and wanting to change that without having to worry about someone else peering into his mind, he decided to get whatever practice he could with the offensive aspect.

"What?" Naruto exclaimed, glancing around. "You mean it's true? But we just took a test!"

Iruka sighed, nodding. "Yes, it's true, although we're not supposed to tell you that. Of course, since Sasuke spilled it already..." He gave Sirius a mildly annoyed look that he met with a smirk. "Yes."

"Well. Then I'll just have to make sure our new sensei sees how awesome I am." Naruto said, nodding as if deciding something very important. Sirius just chuckled again.

Naruto and Sirius were playing hide and seek when Mizuki approached them.

"Naruto!" Mizuki yelled out.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked, frowning as he dropped the henge of a bush that he'd taken.

"I need to talk to you about your exam score." Mizuki explained, grabbing him companionably. "Come on, it's nothing too major, but it's somewhat important, and it needs to get done today. Say good bye to your friends, okay?"

"Okay." Naruto said, giving Mizuki and odd look, then turned and waved to the others. "Bye! I'll see you guys when we're given teams, okay?"

"Yeah." Sasuke said, watching Mizuki suspiciously. "Listen, dobe, I'm heading home, okay? Swing by after you're done."

"Okay!" Naruto called back. The other kids made slight attempts at getting the game restarted, but as parents began to arrive, they quickly began splitting off.

Sirius sighed, pulling out his Kunai. A notice-me not, a disillusionment, and a muffling spell (one of Snape's, he hated to admit), and he was instantly stealthier than most ninja. Which unfortunately, wasn't saying much. He quietly followed Mizuki and Naruto, eavesdropping as his unease increased.

"So due to you being right on the edge, normally we'd have to fail you in order to deal with the number who passed, and make it easier to get evenly divisible teams." Mizuki was saying, "Now Iruka and I both agreed this was unfair, so we're going to let you take a test. You see, the Hokage has a scroll of secret techniques, like your Kage Bunshin. He's replaced it with a fake, containing a number of techniques that we think you'll be able to learn, including, well, the Kage Bunshin, which is just there so you'll know it's the right one.

Now all you have to do is sneak into the tower, grab the scroll, and sneak to training ground thirteen, you know the one. And then you have until ten to learn what's on the scroll. That gives you... four hours. Now since this is a mission simulation, you'll need to avoid being noticed by anyone during this time, including the civilians. The Anbu guard's been lightened of course, they're doing a simulation where they're defending against a few Iwa-nin who've been spotted near the eastern walls. So, you've got four hours to get the scroll. What do you think? Think you can handle it?"

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, "I'll get this done in only three hours! Believe it!"

This... couldn't possibly be a good thing. Sirius frowned, torn by indecision, but eventually decided that it'd be best to just follow Naruto. That way, if anything went wrong, he'd have someone looking out for him. If everything went well, well, he'd have a surprise congratulations.

Naruto made his way into the tower without any trouble that Sirius could see. Unfortunately, not knowing that Sirius was tailing him, he chose a gap in the defenses that was just short enough for him to use, but not enough for Sirius to follow. Seeing that, Sirius decided to just wait outside.

Only a few minutes later, Naruto reappeared, carrying the massive scroll on his back. Sirius felt slightly better. After all, the ANBU weren't incompetent enough to let him actually steal the scroll, were they?

Still, the feeling that something was dreadfully wrong didn't go away, and last time this had happened was when... when Voldemort had fallen. Sirius swore under his breath and drew his kunai. Something bad was about to happen, or his name wasn't Sirius Orion Black. The fact that his name _wasn't_ Sirius Orion Black just made him hopeful that he was, in fact, wrong.

When they arrived at the clearing and Naruto began reading the scroll without anyone interrupting, Sirius resigned himself to calling himself Sasuke again. When Iruka ran up, he grudgingly tacked on Uchiha. When he saw Mizuki approaching, he dropped the Orion. And then he heard what was actually being said.

"Naruto! Don't let Mizuki get the scroll!" Iruka was shouting, blood running down his back from the giant shuriken that had been impaled into it. "It contains forbidden jutsu that can put this village in grave danger! Mizuki used you to get the scroll for himself for his own power!"

"Naruto!" Mizuki shouted back, "Iruka is just trying to scare you because he doesn't want you to have the scroll."

"Huh?" Naruto glanced back and forth, confused. Sirius agreed, this was really confusing. What, exactly, was going on?

"Don't let him trick you, Naruto!" Iruka shouted back. Sirius frowned. Was there a reason everyone was yelling? Mizuki was relatively far away, so that'd make sense, but Iruka was right next to him, and they were both talking with Naruto, so... huh. Had they noticed him?

"Hah!" Mizuki laughed maniacally, and Sirius shivered as he stared getting flashbacks to Voldemort. "I'll tell you who's really lying!" Ignoring Iruka's attempted interruption that Sirius couldn't really hear, he continued, "They've been lying to you your entire life, Naruto! Ever since that decree twelve years ago! Everyone knows but you, and look, Iruka's trying to hide it even now. He'd do anything to make me shut up!"

"What decree?" Naruto asked urgently, "Why does everyone else know about it?"

"The decree... is that no one can tell you that you are the Kyuubi! Yes, that's right, you brat! You're the fox spirit that killed Iruka's parents and-"

Sirius shot him with a stunner, and he collapsed.

"I think someone needs to start explaining things." He said, letting his spells fade (not that his pseudo-invisibility would work now that they'd noticed him.)

Iruka gaped at him, Naruto's eyes brightened, and Sirius felt decidedly more badass than he'd felt since Peter had tricked him.

AN:

HOLY CRAP. I have people following this story! And Reviewing! That's AWESOME! I honestly didn't expect this to be popular at all. Much thanks~ And to say thank you, here's my next chapter already!

And... also because I can't decide who to have as the Kunoichi in the group, and was hoping for input in the form of reviews XD. Because Naruto and Sasuke are in the same team, but I really don't like Sakura. I'm tempted to go with Ino, because this version of Sasuke would actually know her well enough that she wouldn't be a _complete_ fangirl over him. On the other hand, Hinata's pretty cool as well. On the first foot though, I kinda wanna have an OC random civilian kunoichi, who's not a fangirl, and actively dislikes both of them just so Sasuke/Sirius can have a little flashback to Lily... and because the idea of a normal person in a team with a couple of combat monsters is actually a pretty good one.

Finally, a note on Occulumancy vs. Mangekyo: Occulumancy is magic. Magic is utterly broken in how powerful it is in Harry Potter. Mangekyo is utterly broken in general. I like to place them on an equal level. Thus Occulumancy reduces Mangekyo to a contest of wills, which Sirius, being older and more experienced, wins (though with Itachi's natural talent, it's pretty close).


	3. Explanations and Tests

AN: Well. I just realized that I haven't been disclaiming anything. I retroactively disclaim EVERYTHING. Even this disclaimer! Including the section of it disclaiming it!

Chapter 3

"Well?" Sirius asked patiently, staring at Iruka.

"Where did you even come from?" Iruka demanded, sounding annoyed. "And why didn't you try to stop this earlier?"

"I followed Naruto because Mizuki seemed to be acting suspiciously." Sirius admitted, "And the reason I didn't stop this until now is because when you two showed up, I figured that I was just overthinking it, and it was exactly what it seemed like. A test. And then you guys started yelling at each other, so it took me a little bit to figure out what was going on. Which, by the way, I still haven't. So explain please?"

"Yeah." Naruto piped up, sounding unusually subdued. "What was he talking about?"

Iruka sighed, running a hand through his hair. "He's already given you most of the details, so I should probably flesh it out before anything else goes wrong." He grumbled. "Okay, twelve years ago, on October Tenth, the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konoha. The Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, stopped it at the cost of his own life. That's well known. But have you ever wondered _how_ the Fourth stopped the Kyuubi?"

"I thought he just used a really awesome Jutsu." Naruto admitted softly.

Sirius just shrugged, slightly ashamed of himself. He wasn't really in the habit of questioning _how_ things like that happened, most of the wizarding world wasn't. Dumbledore stopped Grindewald in an epic duel? All we need to know. Voldemort was killed by a baby Harry Potter? Serves the wanker right. The specifics were simply irrelevant. And besides, he'd pulled the full tale out of some civilian's head after the first time he noticed someone glaring at Naruto. So that probably stopped him from trying to figure anything else out as well, he already had an answer and thus no need to look further. That was a habit he'd have to break.

"He used the art of Fuuinjutsu to seal the kyuubi into a newly born child." Iruka explained. "The seal he used was a powerful one, and even though I don't know the specifics, it's said that it summoned forth the Shinigami himself." Sirius blinked. That was a new bit of info. He vaguely wondered if this was the same one that had made the Deathly Hallows in his own world, but put aside his musings as Iruka continued. "After his death, there were... not riots, but people were unhappy. The Sandaime decided that the newly made Demon Host's identity must be hidden, and due to his status as a living secret weapon, a law was passed. No one was allowed to say what really happened to the Kyuubi, and the Sacrifice was not to be harmed. On the pain of death. Anyone who didn't already know managed to find out that he had something to do with the Kyuubi, but they didn't know what. There were a lot of executions before the civilian sector realized the Sandaime was being serious."

"Living weapon?" Sirius's voice turned dangerous, and Iruka winced.

"The Jinchuuriki, the human sacrifices, are living weapons capable of channeling the near infinite power of a Tailed Beast." Iruka replied, "Most of the civilian population doesn't know much about them, but they were deployed as powerful weapons during the last war. Even beyond that, Jinchuuriki are statistically... unstable. If the demon has enough influence over the sacrifice, he tends to go insane. Even if the demon lacks influence, any strong emotions on the part of the sacrifice can make the seal unstable and bring out the demon's power."

"And this is all common knowledge?" Sirius asked somewhat incredulously. Iruka shook his head.

"Danzo briefed us so we'd know what to look out for." He admitted.

"I'm confused." Naruto interrupted. "So am I the kyuubi, or not?"

"No." Iruka and Sirius said simultaneously, though Sirius continued teasingly, "If you were, you'd be a lot awesomer at ninja stuff."

"Teme." Naruto shouted, though he fought back a somewhat relieved smile. He turned to Iruka, and his voice grew softer as he asked his next question. "So... is that why everyone...?"

Iruka sighed again. "You have to understand," He said softly, "The Kyuubi was... terrifying. An unstoppable force of nature. It's very presence created enough killer intent that some of the weaker civilians had their hearts burst just from it's presence. It was utterly immune to every jutsu they tried to use, and it took apart the defenses without any apparent effort. I was just a kid at time, so I wasn't near the front lines, but I couldn't even imagine getting close to it. You know the Valley of the End?" At Naruto's frown of confusion, he chuckled slightly, and continued, "It's where Madara and the first Hokage had their duel. During the course of the fight, they created a massive valley, a testament to the destructive power of ninjutsu. And that's something that a Tailed Beast can do just by dragging it's tail. Actually, since Madara summoned the Kyuubi for that fight, I wouldn't be surprised if the Kyuubi was involved in making it. But my point is... they're scared. They're utterly terrified, they're not thinking clearly, and all they know is that the you have something to do with the Kyuubi, and the Yondaime died defeating it. A lot of them who actually know about jinchuuriki are convinced that the seal might be too weak, since he didn't have enough time, while those who don't have more... ridiculous thoughts."

The more prevalent one that Sirius remembered was that Naruto was just the Kyuubi, forced into a human form, and wearing the Yondaime's appearance in order to taunt them. "Basically, they're afraid, and fear makes people stupid." Sirius explained for Naruto, who gave them both a thankful smile.

"You seem unsurprised." Iruka noted, giving Sirius a suspicious look.

"It wasn't hard to figure out that there was some relation." Sirius admitted. Even without his new habit of mind reading every civilian he ran into for practice, there was already people muttering things like demon brat. "I didn't know he had it sealed inside him, but..." He shrugged. Even with his habit, he wasn't sure. There was a lot of misinformation floating about in their minds, the only thing they agreed on was that Naruto was dangerous and evil and to be avoided. It was depressingly similar to the various bits of misinformation floating around about werewolves and specifically Lupin back at home.

Their teacher gave them a smile, shaking his head. "I've told you everything I know. If you two have any further questions, ask the Hokage when we bring him back the scroll. Speaking of which..." He gave Naruto a curious look. "What technique did you learn?"

"Exploding Clone Technique!" Naruto cheered. Sirius immediately decided to spend the next week figuring out how to protect himself from explosions. It was a good thing he and Prongs were so used to spellcrafting for their pranks. Even with that experience though, Sirius knew perfectly well that this was going to suck. Iruka just shook his head in amusement.

The Hokage was waiting for them as they made their way into his office. "I see you've all returned unharmed." The Hokage said, nodding. "I was observing what happened. Do either of you have any questions?"

"Why didn't anyone tell me?" Naruto asked, sounding hurt. "Why didn't _you_ tell me, jiji?"

"I wanted to try to give you as normal a life as I could." The Hokage replied.

Sirius snorted. "That never works. Ever."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow at him, and he immediately shut up. "What would you have done?" The Hokage asked sharply.

"Tell him?" Sirius offered. "And then explain to the public _exactly_ what a jinchuuriki is? I mean, the issue seems to be that they don't actually know what's going on."

"And let our enemies know that he's someone that they'd want to assassinate?" The Hokage seemed amused. Sirius just shrugged.

"They already know." He pointed out, "I mean, when even our civilians know, so does everyone else." The Hokage sighed, and again, Sirius was struck with the feeling of a man far too old for the burdens.

"I suppose." The Hokage murmured, then glanced up at him. "But why do you say that it didn't work? He had a chance to make friends, did he not?"

"That was because Sasuke told them that if they weren't nice he wouldn't like them." Naruto interrupted. "Most of 'em don't like _me_, they just like Sasuke." Sirius winced slightly. Even if it was very blatantly true, it was one of those things that no was willing to admit. And besides, they did like him for himself now, it was just getting them to actually pay attention to him as a person that was the hard part.

"Well, Kiba, Shika, and Choji like you more than they like me." Sirius pointed out. "And the others like you as well, they just acknowledge my awesomeness more." He teased.

"That's not true!" Naruto whined, "It's just because you're all broody and pretty! Teme!" Sirius chuckled, then turned back to the Hokage.

"So yeah. That worked badly. Even if they weren't given a reason to stay away from Naruto, they were still told to." He'd checked the memories himself, genin probably weren't capable of detecting him (except maybe Ino, so he didn't try with her). Chunin and Jonin might be able to, but he'd never risked trying.

The old man sighed. "I suppose it did. At least he has you."

"Er, thanks." Sirius said sheepishly. Then he suddenly realized that he'd been berating the bloody Hokage. ... Oh well, he'd never had much respect for authority anyways.

"You're welcome." The Hokage said, sounding amused. He probably noticed the flash of horror that had crossed Sirius's face when he realized what he'd been doing. "In the meantime though, are there any other questions the two of you would like to ask?"

"Can you tell me who my parents are now?" Naruto asked hopefully, and the near-desperation in his voice hit Sirius like a sack of bricks.

"I'm sorry." The Hokage replied, and he really did look sorry. "But it would be best to hold back that information until you're more capable of defending yourself. Anything else?"

"When are you going to teach him how to harness the kyuubi's power?" Sirius asked, almost absently as he tried to figure out who Naruto's parents could be. Obviously someone important, otherwise telling him wouldn't be a problem. Someone important but disliked, since otherwise they wouldn't be having to protect him. Someone important and disliked both inside and outside the village, since if he was just disliked in the village, telling him wouldn't bring any more grief than the Kyuubi. Probably someone powerful as well, since otherwise there just wouldn't be enough people disliking them. And there was something that Iruka had said earlier, tugging at his thoughts... He was interrupted from his musings by the Hokage.

"We can't risk it until Jiraya returns." The Hokage was saying, "Any damage to the seal requires a seal master, and the Kyuubi's chakra is somewhat toxic."

Hm. Jiraya. Wasn't he a Sannin? The one with the frogs? And the one who trained the Fourth? There was something important here, something he was missing... Something... Uzumaki! They were famous for their sealing! Wait. That wasn't actually helpful at all. Damnit. He decided to put it aside and think about it later.

"I've got nothing else." Sirius finally shrugged. The hokage nodded, then waved them out the door.

"So how are you?" He asked awkwardly as they made their way down the street back towards Sasuke's house.

"Huh?" Naruto blinked at him in confusion. Sirius sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"I mean... are you alright? This was a bit of a bombshell to drop on you. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but..." He shrugged.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm... it's nice to know, you know? I used to wonder if it was because my parents had done something, or I'd done something and didn't know it, or, well, anything really. But now..."

"Now you know that it's just because they were bloody idiots?" Sirius offered dryly. Naruto nodded, grinning at him, and Sirius affectionately ruffled the other boy's golden hair. "Come on. Let's get some Ramen and then get a bit of practice in. Your forms are still a bit sloppy, and we need to get ready for our Jonin's test." Naruto pouted for a few seconds, before suddenly frowning.

"Hey, Sasuke?" He asked quietly. Sirius raised an eyebrow. The kid was being shyer today than he'd ever seen him.

"Yeah?" Sirus asked.

"What if we're not on the same team?" Naruto murmured. Sirius froze up. There was actually a pretty high chance of that happening. With twenty seven kids in the graduating class, and three students per team, it wasn't actually that likely for Naruto to end up on the same team. Of course, his eyes meant that he was probably with Sharingan Kakashi, which would probably switch between terrible and terrific from what he'd heard, but Naruto had no reason to end up with him as well.

"We will be." He finally said, with more certainty than he actually felt. "And even if we're not, we're still genin. We'll mainly be in town, so we can talk without any trouble."

Naruto nodded, and they made their way home.

The week passed with little ado. Sirius managed to put together a rune sequence that would protect against getting himself blown up, and had actually gotten the damn thing to work as well. Of course, that was when he wasn't flashing back to Moony, who'd always been the one who actually liked runes, the one who knew how to make them _dance._ The Map had primarily been his work, a miracle of runecrafting, hundreds of interlocking enchantments, tied into the very wards of Hogwarts herself. And Sirius was nowhere near as elegant, so his bracelet was a simple thing, a shield against fire and concussive force, Algiz to protect, from Kenaz and Wunjo, fire and wind. It was exhausting to use, but it was the sort of thing that would likely save his life.

And eventually, too soon (because he wasn't ready to grow up, wasn't ready to fight again, wasn't ready to go out and maybe die, because he'd died once, and hadn't that been enough?) the day came, and he found himself waiting at the Academy for Naruto to appear. He smiled as the blonde wandered in, still so cheerful that Sirius couldn't help but perk up.

"Hey, Teme!" Naruto said cheerfully, collapsing into the seat beside him. "You're broody today."

Sirius just shrugged, because honestly, what was there to say?

Eventually, Iruka entered, and began a speech on how they were all ninja now. Sirius ignored it in favor of cursing Shikamaru's hair different colors. He stopped, glancing up with a start when a kunai smacked into the table in front of him.

"Are you listening now?" Iruka asked, his eye twitching.

"Sorry, did you say something?" Sirius asked cheekily. He relaxed as Naruto chuckled from beside him. He needed this, needed the levity to distract him, needed the memories of better days. Iruka just gaped at him, then glanced down at his, sheet, then up at Sirius again.

"Did your 'sources' tell you who your jonin sensei is?" Iruka accused. Sirius casually raised his kunai, then covered himself in a henge that turned it into an orange book, covered his face with a cloth mask, and slid his headband downwards until it covered an eye.

"I'm not supposed to be here yet." Sirius smirked, "It's not three hours late."

Iruka simply sighed and moved on, because it was rather obvious that Sirius knew exactly what was happening.

Sirius ignored the rest of it until he heard Iruka announce his team. "Team 7, lead by Hatake Kakashi will contain Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Yamanka Ino." Naruto cheered loudly, Sirius dispelled the Henge, grinning, and Ino let out a victory cry, cheerfully taunting her friend/rival/who-in-merlin's-name-even-knew, Sakura.

"I'm glad you're happy with the team." Iruka said dryly before moving on.

As the other filtered out of the room, following their Jonin-senseis, Sirius nodded to Ino. "Hey."

"Hello Sasuke!" She batted her eyelashes. "It's _so _nice to-"

"Drop it, would you?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes as Naruto pointed and laughed. Ino pouted, but did.

"You're no fun." She accused, "So what do you two know about our Sensei?"

"Lazy looking guy, constantly reads some perverted book, covers his face with a mask, has a sharingan, and former ANBU." Sirius rattled off, hiding the shudder at the thought of ANBU. He still wasn't comfortable with them, their masks reminded him too much of the Death Eaters he'd spent so long fighting.

"Where'd he get a Sharingan?" Ino asked, looking worried. "I mean, he's not an Uchiha."

Sirius grimaced, but shrugged. "I don't know." He admitted. It wasn't common knowledge among the civilians, so his regular information gathering technique was rather useless unless he wanted to risk running into someone who could actually shield their mind.

"One of his teammates gave it to him when he died." Naruto offered. At Sirius's look of surprise he stuck his tongue out. "Hah! Didn't expect me to know something like that, did you Teme~?"

"Well, who'd expect the Dobe to know something like that?" Sirius teased back.

"How _did_ you know that?" Ino asked curiously. "And you're sure that his friend _gave _it to him?"

"I stole his file from the Hokage's office." Naruto said proudly. Sirius stared at him in shock before realizing that he'd stolen something of even higher security before, so this wasn't exactly unbelievable.

"Anything else interesting?" Ino asked, leaning in as if waiting for a juicy bit of gossip. Sirius winced slightly as he realized that they were, in fact, gossiping about their teacher. Of course, being ninja they called it information gathering...

"Yeah, apparently he became a chunin when he was really young, like, younger than us, young! And he's copied over a thousand Jutsu's! And he was part of the Yondaime's team, so he's even awesomer! And he made a couple of jutsu's on his own and-"

"Breath, dobe." Sirius interrupted. "Seriously. Breath. In and out. You don't have to tell us all at once."

"I know how to breath, Teme." Naruto sulked for about half a second before returning to his former bubbliness. "But I bet he knows a bunch of really awesome jutsus to teach us!"

"Of course, first we need to wait three hours for him to arrive." Sirius pointed out. Ino blinked at him.

"Wait, what?"

"He's always three hours late." Naruto explained. "It's his thing."

"You're kidding." Ino said flatly. At Sirius and Naruto's head shakes, she let out an overdramatic wail, and let her head fall onto her arms. Although Sirius was pretty sure that he approved of drama, he was usually at least aware of where it's coming from, so he just smiled instead of joining in. Eventually, after they got bored and started playing ninja tag with kawarami, bunshin, and henge, then set up a series of pranks by the door that Sirius hit with a series of notice-me-nots, Kakashi entered. The first prank was the falling eraser, the second, the water balloon filled with mud, the third, the pile of confetti covered in sticking charms.

"My first thought is... I hate you all." Kakashi said cheerfully. "Meet me on the roof."

They three glanced at each other, then, as if by unspoken agreement, all of them had henged into their own images of him. Now that Sirius had actually seen him, his henge was more detailed, taking into account that odd gray hair, the lack of any weapons pouch they could see, the jounin vest... all of it was quickly slipped on, an illusionary cloak. Ino made for the door, only to have Naruto grab the back of her shirt. "There's no stairs." He explained, "We'll have to climb the walls." She nodded, turning and following Naruto as he raced Sirius up the minute handholds that they'd stabbed into the walls with their kunai.

"Yo." Kakashi said, leaning against the wall, reading his book.

"Sorry we're late." Sirius replied, "We got lost on the boat of life."

"... It's the road of life." Kakashi replied after a few seconds, dropping his orange book from his face to look Sirius in the eye. "You three aren't very good at copying me."

"We're working with second-hand information." Sirius admitted. "We'll get better."

"Ah." Kakashi nodded faux-wisely, then gestured. "How about you all introduce yourselves? I'll go last. Sunshine can go first, then duck-hair, then blondie." The three of them twitched at the nicknames, Sirius because he was still sensitive about his hair, Naruto and Ino because their nicknames didn't actually differentiate them.

"Well?" Kakashi finally nodded at Naruto, who rolled his eyes.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be hokage!" He said, then pointed at Kakashi, "And then I'm going to make you show up on time!"

"Hm? Did you say something?" Kakashi murmured, then seemed to notice that he put the book away.

Sirius chuckled, then introduced himself as Sasuke, and Ino followed up. Finally, Kakashi gave them a strange one-eyed smile, then began to talk. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. Now, you guys aren't genin yet, as I've heard you know. First, you'll need to pass my little survival test. Now make your way to training ground thirteen tomorrow at seven in the morning, and don't eat breakfast unless you're okay with throwing up." His single visible eye flashed across all theirs, and Sirius gave a cocky smirk as Naruto stepped forth.

"Don't worry, we're going to beat your test Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto declared. Sirius nodded in agreement, taking a step to stand behind his friend, then glanced at Ino, who followed them forwards, smirking slightly.

"You seem amused." Sirius murmured to her under the cover of Naruto's loud proclamations.

"I thought I was going to get stuck with Shikamaru and Choji." She whispered back. "At least you guys _do_ stuff."

Their whispered conversation stopped as Kakashi disappeared in a pile of leaves.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Ino finally declared. "I've got some clan training." Sirius gave her a thoughtful look. If they ended up on the same team, would he be able to trust her? He needed to practice his occlumency if he wanted to stop Itachi from steamrolling him next time they met, but if she betrayed him, like he'd been betrayed by the other two people he considered brothers... but no. He was a Gryffindor, and he'd eat his tie before he backed down just because he was afraid. But even so, now wasn't the time.

"Sure." Sirius said, nodding. "I'll meet you guys there. We can poke around, try to come up with a plan while we wait for him."

The three of them quickly split off, each heading back to their own homes. Sirius spent the rest of the day working on a couple of minor projects, and trying to get his animagus transformation to work. For some reason though, even though he was sure he knew what he was doing, the transformation just wasn't flowing like it used to.

He glared down at the hand that simply refused to become a paw, then paused thoughtfully. Did he still have an animagus form? Would he have to relearn how to do the transformation? He didn't know how to make the animagus potion, and even if he had, he wouldn't have the ingredients, but meditation could let him check what it naturally was, even if he'd no longer be able to change it if it was something relatively useless... not that being an animagus was actually useful. The only reason he'd bothered to learn it was for Moony.

He sighed, fighting back his disinclination to sit around, and began to meditate. It failed to do much, but then again, he'd taken about half a year to learn it the first time around, and it _did_ kill time.

The next morning found him at the training grounds with Ino, both of them losing to Naruto at a game of poker. "Okay, how are you drawing a straight flush every other hand?" Sirius demanded, annoyed. "I'm even stacking the deck!"

"Wha- hey!" Naruto gave him an offended look. "Teme! You're cheating?"

Sirius just shot him a glare. "Your luck is so ridiculously good, that it's overriding my cheating." He grumbled, "That's beyond unfair. That's so far beyond unfair that it's literally impossible, but you're doing it anyways."

"Hah!" Naruto smirked back. "It's because I'm- oh, hey, Kakashi sensei!"

"Are you three playing poker?" He asked curiously. Sirius glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow.

"When did you get here?" He asked, somewhat surprised. He'd tossed alarm wards around the clearing just so that he'd be able to look badass and notice his teacher. Apparently, they'd failed.

"Maa. Only a little bit ago. Anyways, my cute little students, perhaps we should begin the test?"

"Bring it!" Naruto shouted. Ino smacked him in the back of the head.

"Don't yell in a lady's ear." She said with a faux-properness. He stuck his tongue out at her while Kakashi watched with amusement written all over his... mask.

"Good to see you're feeling so energetic!" He said cheerfully. "Now, we'll begin the test. You see these bells?" He pulled out a pair of small silver bells. "You have until noon to get one. Anyone who fails to do so will get tied to a log, and not allowed to eat lunch. And then sent back to the academy." The three of them glared as they figure out just why Kakashi had warned them not to eat breakfast.

"... There's only two bells." Naruto finally pointed out.

"That's right, my cute little student." Kakashi said, "So that means that only two of you can pass!"

"Is that actually a rule?" Sirius suddenly asked. Kakashi raised his single visible eyebrow as Sirius continued. "Or is it just an assumption based on there only being two bells?"

"... Does it matter?" Kakashi finally asked. Sirius nodded. "Hm. I suppose it's an assumption." Kakashi finally decided. "But don't worry. You mere genin won't be getting these, not unless you come at me with an intent to kill."

"Okay." Sirius agreed amiably, pulling out a pair of Kunai. "Levicorpus." Kakashi let out a startled yelp as he suddenly found himself hanging in the air by his feet. "Accio bells." The bells tugged themselves out of his grip, flying towards Sirius, only to be snatched from midair by still upside down Kakashi, who proceeded to Kawarami his way out of the spell's grasp. "What? That's totally unfair!" Sirius complained, "I didn't even know you could do that!"

"You know, I didn't even say start yet." Kakashi said companionably from behind them.

"Naruto, you want to try any army of explosive clones?" Sirius asked casually. "I'll provide cover fire. Ino, you mind hitting him with your mind switch jutsu?"

"Wouldn't it be better to work separately?" Kakshi asked casually taking out the first two clones that Naruto sent forth with a pair of shuriken, then shunshining away away from the three genin. "How else would you figure out who passes?"

"Meh. We can figure out who passes or fails after we've got the bells." Sirius replied, "I'm willing to bet on winning rocks paper scissors rather than on trying to get them alone."

"You made a good attempt with those two jutsus at the beginning." Kakashi pointed out, tossing more shuriken at Naruto's next wave of clones.

"And it failed." Sirius noted. "That was kind of my trump card. But even beyond that, we've got a better chance when we can support each other. Isn't that Konoha's strength? Our teamwork?"

"Is it worth it if one of you fail?" Kakashi asked innocently, raising an eyebrow at the other two.

"Yes." Ino replied immediately, still waiting for Kakashi to be held down long enough for her ability to actually have a chance of hitting.

"None of us are going to fail!" Naruto declared dramatically, sending forwards another wave of explosive shadow clones. "Believe it!"

"Seeing as I'm the one deciding who fails..." Kakashi trailed off, tossing another round of shuriken. Sirius absently wondered exactly how many shuriken he was carrying, and if they'd be enough to stop Naruto before he ran out of chakra. Then he wondered if it was even _possible_ for Naruto to run out of chakra. Didn't he have an infinite source of it inside his stomach?

"This is the most boring fight ever." Ino decided, tossing her own brace of kunai at Kakashi at the same time as Naruto's fourth wave. Or maybe his fifth? Sirius decided it didn't matter, tossing a banisher-stunner-reducto combo into the mess.

"Boring?" Kakashi asked, sounding amused. "I suppose it is. Hm, maybe I should work some lessons in? Lesson one, Ninjutsu." He suddenly appeared in midjump, somewhere in the above-them direction, and spat a massive fireball at the trio. Naruto and Ino kawarami'd out of the way, Sirius tossed up a shield charm then followed. He was curious if the shield would be able to stop the fireball, but not curious enough to actually be there when they interacted.

"Lesson two." Kakashi suddenly said from behind him, "Taijutsu." Then Sirius had to duck under Kakashi's flurry of blows. Kakashi, Sirius decided, was terrifying to fight properly. And beyond that, he was almost definitely holding back. Despite peppering him with as many spells as he could manage to get off in between his own blows and dodges, and tossing around shields like candy, Sirius was losing. Badly. He finally took a kick to the chest that sent him flying backwards into a nearby tree (apparently he'd Kawarimi'd straight into the forest at the edge of the training grounds), where he collapsed with a thud and an oof of pain.

Kakashi disengaged, apparently giving him time to recover from the rather brutal beating. Sirius lay there trying to catch his breath until he felt a slight chakra pulse from someone breaking a genjutsu. He swore, pulling himself up, and dragging himself in that direction. Fighting without someone to watch your back, as Moody had rather often shouted at him and the other DMLE trainees, was a stupid idea. Having two people to watch your back was better. While James hadn't been a Hit Wizard (being far too rich and married to bother with something as mundane as a job), he'd occasionally helped Sirius in the more minor things, and had actually helped save him from Voldemort himself once (which wasn't a minor thing at all).

Sirius quickly came across the scene of the fight. Naruto had managed to show up to support Ino, and they were trying to fight Kakashi. Unfortunately, Kakashi was not just fending them off, but appeared to be doing so with contemptuous ease, reading his orange book while doing so. Sirius frowned, looking at Naruto's combat style more closely. He'd lost most of the finesse that Sirius had tried to drill into him, reverting back to his original brawler style in his blind rage. Ino, on the other hand, wasn't actually that good at Taijutsu, something that Sirius immediately decided had to be fixed. He took aim, then shouted at the top of his lungs, "Fire in the hole!" before releasing a blasting hex at maximum power. Naruto, hearing his yell, dove at Ino, pulling her out of the range of the explosion.

"Maa. That might have really hurt you know." Kakashi said from behind Sirius. He spun around, launching a banisher almost instinctively, and was rewarded with seeing Kakashi go flying backwards before recovering and launching a lightning bolt back at Sirius. Sirius swore, tossing himself sideways, and rolled to come up firing a stunner. An annoying amount of this was depending on catching Kakashi off guard, but it wasn't working for long enough for anyone to actually take advantage of it. Kakashi suddenly froze as a bell rang. "Time out!" He called cheerfully. "Looks like it's lunch!"

Sirius groaned in disgust and dropped to the ground. "I hate you." He grumbled. Kakashi just laughed.

A few minutes later found Ino tied to a tree stump, with Naruto and Sirius sitting in front of her. "Now I know you failed, my cute little students, but I'll give you another chance!" Kakashi declared cheerfully, "Don't share any of your lunches with her, and I'll let you guys try again. Now I'll be back, so remember. Don't share!" He disappeared in a pile of leaves. Sirius immediately hit the rope with a cutting curse, freeing Ino.

"Sasuke-kun!" She protested. He rolled his eyes.

"He never said anything about untying you." He pointed out. "But speaking of the food, eat. You need it more than Naruto or I do. Naruto's got absurd chakra reserves, and I don't use much for my, er, unique jutsus. So you're the only one who really needs it." She shook her head.

"I did the least, remember?" She said stubbornly, "I'd rather not cripple you guys's fighting ability."

"Don't worry!" Naruto said cheerfully, "I had a big dinner, so I'm not really that hungry! And Teme here tends to forget to eat." Sirius raised an eyebrow in surprise at the blatant lie. He ate almost as much food as Naruto did.

"I'm on a diet, anyways." Ino sniffed. "I'm fine. You guys eat." Suddenly, Kakashi appeared behind her, looking thunderous.

"What did I just say?" He demanded, "Are you guys disobeying?"

"No." Ino replied before either of the boys could speak, "I didn't eat. See, they haven't even opened the bento's yet."

"We're not eating without her." Naruto decided, crossing his arms. Sirius started at the sudden declaration, but nodded.

"I agree." He said flatly. Kakashi frowned at them from behind his mask.

"... You know, you guys are obviously doing this as a team solidarity thing," he said, "Which is what I was going for, but I was expecting you to actually break the rules to do so." Sirius shrugged.

"We're toeing the line." He noted, "It lets you get away with stuff more easily." He bit back a wince as he remembered that it had been Wormtail who'd said that whenever Prongs and Sirius got too overboard with their pranks.

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, now that you three have thoroughly trashed the bell test, I suppose you pass. You know, I had this whole speech planned, but now it seems sort of redundant. Well, the first part of it anyways. The second part... well, just follow me."

The three genin glanced at each other cautiously, then followed him to a large stone, covered in names.

"This is the memorial stone." Kakashi said somberly, a hint of pain tainting his voice. "Written on it are the names of Konohas greatest heroes."

"I want my name on there." Naruto decided.

"Idiot!" Ino snapped, her face looking uncommonly somber, "Everyone on there died in the line of duty."

"So?" Sirius asked softly, "Everyone dies. Dying doing the right thing is still how I'd rather go." Like Prongs had. Like Lilly had. Like Alice and Frank might as well have had. Like how Peter should have. Like how Sirius himself did.

"Well, either way, I hope your names don't end up on there any time soon." Kakashi said mildly. "Just keep in mind, even though those who break the rules are trash, those who abandon their comrades are worse."

* * *

AN: So. Nothing much to say here. Oh! You might be wondering why Sirius is so spell-happy compared to Canon Sasuke. And why other people's personalities are different. Honestly, it's just because it's, well, Sirius, not Sasuke. Sirius was simply a lot nicer than Sasuke, and a lot less stuck up. He also interacted with other kids a lot more. Since he was part of a major clan, he and (most of) the other clan kids actually interacted a decent amount even before the Academy, which means Ino went fangirl more because it was the popular thing to do than because of actual fangirlness. She actually knows him. She's not any more skilled though. Naruto's the same, having been supported by a friend who helped him grow, forced him to pay attention in class, and generally _made_ him learn. Of course, for him this does translate into skill, because any increase from 0 skill is significant.

Sirius, on the other hand, actually drops in pure combat skill from canon Sasuke. He's used to doing an actual fight as a wizard, not as a ninja. Punching someone is a last resort, he prefers to toss a stunner or a banisher at them. A melee fight is simply not what he's good at, unlike Sasuke, who obsessively trained with taijutsu, shurikens, and other ninja weapons. Sirius had better things to do, like figure out how to enchant things, mess with spells, try to get his animagus form working, help Naruto, etc. So he falls from "epic fighter!" role to "Support caster."

Why did they hold their ground so much better? Because Sirius was, as far as Kakashi's concerned, pulling abilities out of thin air. He used something like the great breakthrough by slashing his kunai, somehow dangled Kakashi by his leg without any really visible effects, grabbed the bells without any chakra strings, and generally avoided the "natural" laws. So Kakashi was so heavily off balance, it wasn't even funny. And he still utterly trashed them, because Jonin and former ANBU actually _mean _something. Namely, not being caught off guard for too long. Also, teamwork. That helped the genin hold their ground. Sirius's covering fire and Ino's occasional kunai backed with the fact that the clones are now capable of exploding (even if Kakashi didn't let any of them detonate) meant that Kakashi was actually forced to, you know, not read. Back that with the number of tricks Sirius was using and the fight was a lot closer than you'd expect.

Next, information. Sirius has managed to gain basic information on a number of people, but only "civilian knowledge." This is because he's not really willing to risk trying to mind-read someone who might be able to detect him. As far as I know, that would be nobody, ever, because the Naruto world doesn't really seem to do mind shields, but _he _doesn't know that.

Finally, is Sirius being a Mary Sue, or even just overpowered? (If you're not asking this, you should be.) I'd say yes, compared to other genin, but no compared to say, chunin or jonin that he doesn't catch off guard. Since this is pretty much the same as canon, I feel comfortable with this. Magic trumps chakra when it manages to hit, but chakra means that hitting's not exactly likely. Which is why Sirius will probably focus on spells that aren't so visible later on (Stuff like obliviate, levicorpus, banishers, summonings, and cutting curses, things that you can't really see coming at you.) Furthermore, "prank" spells like a jelly-knees curse can severely screw over a shinobi, who kind of needs his body working properly, and can't use counterspells.


	4. Training and a D Rank

AN: Disclaimed.

Chapter 4

After that somber note, Kakshi sent them back home, with an order to meet on the bridge at the same time the next day. With a cheerful "Don't be late!" that had Sirius trying to transfigure his hair into snakes, he disappeared.

"We should all get lunch together." Sirius decided. "As a team bonding exercise. And to get to know each other better."

"Oh?" Ino asked, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "You want to ask me out to lunch, Sasuke-kun?"

Sirius's lips twitched as he fought to keep them out of a smile. Normally he'd flirt back, but the fact that everyone involved was twelve just made things awkward, though no less amusing. "Well, I'm inviting Naruto as well." He said, acting as if he'd completely missed the innuendo.

"We should get Ramen!" Naruto cheered. Sirius shrugged, glancing at Ino.

"I'm on a diet." She said flatly.

"We're ninja. Our version of a diet is still more food than most non-ninja eat." Sirius pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's a properly balanced intake of nutrients." She argued, "And Ramen... isn't. At all."

"Eh?" Naruto frowned at the two of them in confusion. "What's wrong with Ramen? Ramen's awesome!"

"Ramen might taste good," Sirius said diplomatically, "But it's not healthy, per se."

"It's not balanced." Ino corrected with a superior sniff. "It has too much sodium for too little of anything else."

"Hey!" Naruto protested, despite probably having no idea what he was protesting. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Naruto, it's the same reason I make you eat something that's not ramen for breakfast and dinner. Otherwise your growth is stunted and you make a bad ninja. Only Ino's taking it a bit further than either of us do. It's like training. You have to do it the right way, with the right katas, to develop the right muscles, otherwise you end up in trouble."

"Oh!" Naruto frowned at her. "Well, you can get Ramen with us just this once, right?"

"Oh, I suppose." Ino huffed. Sirius grinned at her.

"We appreciate your sacrifice," He teased, "It won't be forgotten."

"It better not be!" She threatened.

They made their way to Ichiraku, where the stall owner greeted them with a cheerful smile.

"So these are your teammates, Naruto? Good to see you, Sasuke! And this must be Ino then?"

The three nodded as they took their seats. "Can I have a couple bowls of Miso ramen?" Naruto asked, "That should be good to start with."

Ino stared at him. "Hold on. A couple bowls to _start_ with?"

Sirius just shrugged. "He's got a lot of chakra." He explained. "He needs a lot more fuel than you do." It was, after all, the same reason that they ate so much food back in Hogwarts. Magic or chakra, using it burned a lot of energy. The more fundamental force of magic burned more energy though, so even someone who was only mid-powered like Sirius needed to eat almost as much as a chakra powerhouse like naruto. Speaking of which... "I'll have a couple bowls as well. The new, uh, bloodline that showed up in me." Sirius mentioned, "It lets me do some less normal things, but it kicks up my food requirements as well."

"Well. At least we'll know to prioritize rations." Ino said dryly. Sirius snickered. As the stall owner gave them their bowls, he dug in. Unlike Naruto, who somehow managed to talk about everything under the sun while eating, Sirius just let the conversation flow over him, enjoying the feeling of Naruto arguing with Ino over the most ridiculous things (Orange? Really? Who cared?). It was... comforting.

As Ino's meal finished, Sirius temporarily put his aside. "Hey, Ino? Can I ask you for help with something?"

"Sure, what is it?" She asked immediately. Sirius took a deep breath, trying to figure out how much to reveal. Eventually, he decided to just reveal the bare minimum. The rest of his explanation wouldn't make much sense, not until she learned the truth.

"You know my new bloodline, right? Well because of it, Itachi wasn't able to use a genjutsu on me. But I'm pretty sure that his genjutsu was a mind reading one, so I need help with strengthening my mental shields." He got out nervously. Letting people into his mind had never been something he was comfortable with. Heck, Letting people in at all had been bad. He'd only ever really had a few friends, the marauders, and then Naruto, and Itachi, though not as much. That was why it'd hurt so much when he'd been betrayed, not just once but twice. Why he'd gone nearly mad with grief when Prongs had died, and it had been Wormtail's fault.

She frowned at him, thinking for a second. "So... you want me to...?"

"Try to break into my mind." Sirius said firmly. "It'll help us both. You'll get better at breaking in, and I'll be able to strengthen my shields." She perked up.

"Of course I'll help, Sasuke-kun!"

"Oh, hey." Naruto glanced up at them. "Should I do this training as well? I don't want people in my head."

"There's something inside your head, dobe?" Sirius teased, but gave him a thoughtful look. Having his friend be able to de-

"No, you should be fine." Ino interrupted his thoughts with a dismissive wave. "My dad said you've got something that means that anyone who tries to enter your head's going to end up dead. He made me promise not to use the family techniques on you because of that."

Sirius blinked at her in confusion, then quickly glanced at Naruto, and more specifically, the seal. If the Kyuubi was defending his mind then how exactly did the seal work? His fingers twitched with the urge to pull out a kunai and toss diagnostic spells at him until he knew. The fact that seals in general seemed to blithely ignore his magic was just reality taunting him, he knew it was.

The rest of the day passed without any events of real note. Ino split off almost immediately after that conversation to get her clan training in, Naruto and Sirius ate a few more bowls then practiced taijutsu and ninjutsu together, and they had dinner at Sirius's house before Naruto went home to sleep. The next morning, they were annoyed to find that Kakashi again decided to be three hours late.

"You know, somehow I get the feeling that I shouldn't have expected him to change just because he got students." Sirius remarked from where he was lying in the grass, playing with a small ball of light that he'd conjured. But for some reason, he had. He wasn't really sure why, maybe because Prongs had become so much more responsible after they found out about Harry, or because Lupin had someone managed to get himself employed as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, just so he could watch over their best friend's son. Because children changed people. Sirius knew they did, but since he'd never been responsible enough to want a child himself (he always claimed that he'd just borrow Harry if he felt like having a kid) he wasn't really sure exactly when it happened.

"He should!" Ino grumbled, staring around the grounds, as if expecting their teacher to magically materialize.

"Maybe he's busy?" Naruto offered, doing some katas by the side of the bridge.

"Don't forget to correct your left foot." Sirius called absently. Naruto kept messing it up, the atrocious academy style that he'd been drilled in messing with the more fluid core that Itachi had taught Sirius, and that Sirius had integrated into Naruto's training.

"Teme!" Naruto shouted back, sounding embarrassed. "I don't mess it up all the time!"

"Did you mess it up this time?" Sirius teased. His friend's silence was all the answer he needed, and he chuckled quietly.

"Maa." A voice suddenly chuckled from the trees above them. Sirius reflexively tried to toss himself into a ready position, then tripped over Ino who'd tossed herself the other way. "It's good to see that one of you at least are eager to train."

"We're very eager to train." Sirius said after spitting out some grass that had managed to get itself stuck in his mouth. "I'm practicing control for my new bloodline. Naruto's doing Katas. Ino was taking a break." She'd been doing katas and drills alongside Naruto for the last while, then somehow managed to decide that she was going to outlast him. She'd managed to keep going for a couple hours before she finally collapsed, exhausted by the relatively punishing pace that Naruto had set for himself. Apparently he'd been annoyed enough by Kakashi's kicking them around to get even more serious. "You on the other hand, were missing."

"A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around to avoid the bad luck." Kakashi replied cheerfully.

"And that took three hours." Ino not-quite-asked, unimpressed.

"There were a lot of black cats." Kakashi agreed.

Sirius snorted. "Whatever. I'm assuming we're starting our training now?" He wasn't really sure how to react. Kakashi was so unlike Mad Eye, whose shouts of constant vigilance and ramblings about how to avoid an ambush (get there first, or don't get there at all) would make being late an anathema to him.

"Hm... I was thinking we'd go on a mission first, but if you'd rather train..." He said, for all the world sounding as if he was offering the trio something that was actually interesting.

"We're not good enough for missions yet." Ino lied smoothly. "We'd rather be properly trained first." Kakashi's one visible eye widened for a second, before narrowing at Sirius. He smirked back.

"You're just out to ruin my fun, aren't you." Kakashi accused. Sirius nodded. He'd already informed the other two about what exactly a D-rank entailed. Most of the adult civilians knew, they were the ones doing the hiring after all. And since the academy had told them the requirements, they knew that those were probably what they'd be getting. Well, Ino and Sirius had, they'd had to remind Naruto. "Maa. Fine, I suppose your teamwork is good enough anyways. I'll just make the training hard enough to make up for our lack of missions. Start doing laps around the training field!"

... Well. That was going to suck, Sirius decided. He glanced around. The training field was decently sized, the perimeter was probably a couple miles. And since he didn't give them any sort of time limit or anything... Ino and Sirius stood up with sighs. Naruto just fell out of his practice stance. He hadn't stopped even when Kakashi appeared, which was a rather laudable amount of determination.

The three of them began running. It took a few laps before they got too exhausted to continue, Ino collapsing first, four laps in, then Sirius after five laps, and Naruto not collapsing until his tenth. Of course, Kakashi had been chasing them, demanding they run faster, run harder, not take breaks, so they tired more quickly.

"Good!" He clapped, "Now for some pushups and situps! Let's do fifty reps of each!" They did them with a lot fewer groans. Fifty reps wasn't actually that bad. AS they finished, Kakashi stared at them for a moment before nodding. "Hm. Now again. This time do the pushups with one hand, then the other hand, and do, oh, two hundred situps instead." After they completely exhausted themselves with the exercises (he kept adding more until he was sure that they couldn't go further, though at least he gave them short breaks), Kakashi gave them one of his strange eye-smiles. "Now that we've done our warmups-" The three groaned, because they knew perfectly well that this was just to exhaust them, "We're going to do some sparring! Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, you two first." Sirius sat up, giving Naruto an annoyed look when he realized that his friend had already almost recovered.

The two quickly made their way to the battle ground, standing across from each other. "Ready? Begin!" Kakashi declared. Naruto immediately tried to charge in, only to have to toss himself sideways to avoid Sirius's great fireball technique. He bounced as he landed, pulsing enough chakra to below his feet to launch himself forwards and recover the momentum, a technique they'd found when Naruto had been learning tree climbing to increase his control. (If using too much chakra sent you flying, then why not use that to get a quick burst of speed? Sure, traction was hell, but with the right combination of the tree walking technique and the launch...)

Sirius traded a couple quick blows before disengaging and trying to hit Naruto with a banisher. Unfortunately Naruto knew what was coming and ducked under the attack, then launched himself forwards into a tackled. Sirius tossed himself to the side, then tossed a trio of stunners at his blond friend. Naruto simply kawarami'd out of the way, then summoned a pair of shadow clones that charged mindlessly forwards. Sirius levitated one into the other, then used his left hand to hit it with a stunner, detonating it. He winced at the explosion, then stumbled backwards as Naruto leaped out of it to slam his foot into the ebony-haired boy's chest.

"You're getting slow, teme!" Naruto taunted, unleashing a flurry of blows at Sirius.

"Your explosive clones are just annoying." Sirius replied cheerfully, using the kunai in his left hand to create a smaller, more condensed and portable shield, and the one in his right to strike back with a series of minor jinxes. Leg-lockers, jelly-knees, and tripping hexes were his method of trying to mess with Naruto's balance, and the blonde was, in fact, forced to disengage to dodge the otherwise point blank attacks interspersed with the occasional stab of the kunai that was spitting the spells.

"It's because I'm awesome, Teme!" Naruto countered, suddenly filling about half the field with regular shadow clones. Or at least, Sirius hoped they were regular shadow clones, because if they weren't, this was going to suck. He tossed a bone-breaker into center of the mass, and then groaned as the entire army just kawarami'd out of the way. He quickly spun to block one of them, then ducked under a second one's kick, caught a third on his shield, and countered a fourth's attack with a bombarda that tore through a decent number of them. Almost immediately though, he stumbled as one of them managed to get a punch through his defenses. Casting a quick flame-freezing charm on himself, he dropped a great fireball at point blank, clearing out most of the nearby clones with the ensuing burst of flames. And then Naruto sent the second swarm. Sirius groaned and surrendered immediately.

"That was a good fight!" Kakashi said brightly. "Ino-chan, you get to spar with Naruto-kun, since he won."

Sirius collapsed by the side of the battlefield, and decided to enjoy watching Naruto thoroughly beat up Ino. It was much more entertaining when he wasn't the one being swarmed with an army of clones. Ino, not having his breadth of wide area damage abilities, didn't last nearly as long. Although she managed to pop the occasional clone when she broke it's defenses, Naruto was capable of summoning somewhere around a hundred at once, and even if only four or six could attack at once, the numbers were tiring, and the constant string of attacks forced anyone caught in the middle to focus on defense. Beyond that, the ones outside the small combat circle that formed mainly just disrupted her attempts at Kawarami by using the technique themselves to clean the field.

"Maa, I think that's enough, my cute little students! Now Sasuke-kun and Ino-chan!" The various narutos popped out of existence, revealing the real one standing by the side of the field, grinning. Sirius rolled his eyes, then moved to switch spots with him. "Ready?" Kakashi asked, his voice still annoyingly cheerful, "Then begin!"

Ino immediately fell back, tossing a brace of shuriken at Sirius, who tossed up a shield. Deciding to stick to a ranged fight for now, he tossed up another pair of shields to give him cover, and then started firing stunners from over them. Ino managed to dodge most of the stunners, making liberal use of bunshin to draw Sirius's fire, and returned fire with as many shuriken as she could.

Sirius dropped a bunshin, and had it occasionally toss a stunner as he tossed the disillusionment, muffliato, and notice-me-not combo over himself. He then quickly began sneaking towards his opponent, relying on the spell combination's stealth boost to allow him to get around her. Finally, when he decided he was close and unlikely to be noticed, he tossed another stunning spell at her. She immediately collapsed.

"Looks like Sasuke-kun wins!" He said cheerfully. "You're not very good in a straight up fight, are you though, Sasuke-kun?" Sirius shook his head. "Well it's a good thing that as a ninja, that's not too much of a problem! How long will Ino-chan take to wake up from your technique?"

"It takes a few hours unless I use the counter-technique." Sirius replied, kneeling next to her and casting a reenevrate. "You awake?" He teased.

"How did you do that?" Ino whined, "I was sure you hadn't hit me!"

"I just left a bunshin then snuck around behind you." Sirius admitted.

Ino groaned. "I'm learning more clan techniques, ASAP." She vowed.

"Would that help?" Naruto asked, curious. "I mean, more jutsus is always awesome, but he's just being sneaky."

She shrugged. "Daddy said something about a jutsu that lets you detect nearby minds." She explained, "But it fell out of favor because we have so many other sensors in the village, and it's not really useful compared to how they do it or the other techniques we have."

"Well, that's for later!" Kakashi said cheerfully, "Right now, we're going to climb trees without our hands!"

"We already know how to do that." All three of them said immediately. Naruto needed it for his chakra control, since the leaf exercise was too fiddly for him. Sirius had learned in order to teach his friend. Ino had learned because control was more important than power for her clan techniques.

"Maa... how about water walking then?" He asked cheerfully.

"I know that too." Ino said, sounding unimpressed. Naruto and Sirius on the other hand, shook their heads.

"We didn't manage to learn that one yet." Sirius admitted.

"Hm... Ino, teach your teammates how to water walk!" Kakashi ordered. "And then all three of you work on that to increase your reserves. We'll work on that until you guys can spar while on the water for, let's say, three hours straight!" The three of them gave him an incredulous look, and he waved at the bridge that they'd been at. "There's a river right there! You can practice on it, my cute little students!" The genin grumbled, but made their way over to the bridge. "After you've done that for, oh, an hour, meet me at the hokage's tower! We do need to do at least ten D-Ranks. I, in the meantime, need to find Gai."

"Isn't he that youthful guy?" Sirius wondered absently. The civilians didn't know much about him, other than that he had a tendency to rant about the springtime of youth, and dressed in green spandex.

"So you've heard of him!" Kakashi said gleefully, "Well he'll be helping us with our training." The three genin felt a shiver of fear go down their spines, even if they weren't really sure why.

An hour later, teams nine and seven sans Kakashi were standing in front of the Hokage's tower, staring at each other.

"I see that Kakashi is being hip and late again today!" Gai shouted at the top of his lungs.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Hold on, are you implying that he's ever _not_ late?"

"Well, no." Gai replied, looking slightly put out, "But I'm sure that someday he'll awaken his fires of youth and be on time!"

"His... fires of youth?" Ino asked hesitantly.

"Oh!" Naruto suddenly snapped his right hand. "You're _that_ Gai! The Taijutsu master!" At Sirius's raised eyebrow he explained, "I broke into the records. He's really famous because he's got an insanely hard training regiment. Like, he runs a hundred laps around Konoha every morning as a warm-up level hard. He's an elite jounin, on the same level as Kakashi-sensei, and he only uses Taijutsu. He can use other stuff, but his teams tend to not worry as much about chakra reserves, because, simply put, they don't really need them due to how strong they get from his training programs. Speaking of which, are we going to do one of those?" Naruto stared up at him with fear in his eyes.

"Ah!" He grinned, giving them a thumbs up and apparently completely missing Naruto's terror, "I would love to help you awaken the fires of your youth, but perhaps we should ask your hip and cool teacher what he thinks?"

"Maa, I'd much appreciate if you'd take them under wing." Kakashi declared from behind them, prompting a panicked spin.

"You're NOT late!" Naruto cried out, pointing at him.

"What?" One of the other genin, a girl with a chinese style dress and her hair drawn up into buns asked, sounding confused. "Yes he is. We've been here for about an hour."

"He's usually three hours late." Sirius replied dryly. "It's sort of his thing."

"The little old lady I had to help home was already pretty close." Kakashi replied cheerfully. "Now, Gai here has agreed to help me with some joint training while we do our D-Rank. We have the capture Tora mission. Gai's team's job will be to _free_ Tora!"

"Tora?" Naruto asked, scratching his head.

"Evil demon cat." Ino explained, shuddering.

"That's a very unyouthful way to refer to the feline." Gai replied, frowning at Ino.

"Accurate though." The blonde girl muttered under her breath. Sirius snickered, then gave Gai an innocent smile.

"Anyways, my cute little students, let's get started!" He clapped, and the two jounin disappeared.

"... So are you guys going to attack us already, or will you at least give us a chance to get a head start?" Sirius asked the three opposing genin. They glanced at each other.

"It would be most unyouthful to attack a younger team so quickly." One of the males said. He looked a lot like a miniature copy of Gai.

"Awesome! Thanks, fuzzy-eyebrows!" Naruto said cheerfully. Sirius facepalmed. Insulting the people who'd agreed to let them have a head start was not the best idea.

"Naruto!" Ino yelled, glaring at him, then gave the other team an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry, he didn't mean it."

"Neh?" Naruto gave her a confused look, but luckily didn't say anything else stupid as Sirius dragged his friend away. The kid had less tact than the Weasleys.

Team Seven quickly moved away from the tower.

"So how are we planning on finding the cat?" Sirius asked the others, "It could be anywhere."

"Follow the path of people screaming in pain." Ino muttered under her breath. Sirius chuckled until he realized she wasn't joking, and was, in fact, listening for screaming.

It only took them a few minutes to run into the evil cat savaging someone. "Wow." Sirius stared at it. "Makes me wish I was an animagus again."

"A what?" Ino asked, giving him an odd look. He blinked, thought back over his last statement, then swore mentally.

"Er, nothing." He waved it off, then pulled out a kunai. "Shall we try to catch the cat?"

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" The Gai clone shouted from somewhere to the side. Sirius let out a yell of pain as someone's foot smashed into his rib, sending him flying sideways. "I cannot believe that I forgot this earlier! And for my mistake, I will run around Konoha fifty times on my hands!" The Gai clone said dramatically as Sirius groaned and tried to sit up. "I am Rock Lee, and I have heard that you are a genius! Is this true?"

"What?" Sirius stared at him. "Er, yeah I guess. I mean, people tend to call me one." He groaned, then tossed a quick diagnostic spell at his ribs, thanking the magical first aid course that all hit wizards went through. Hm. Just some bruising. So it hurt to breath, but nothing likely to kill him.

"Then I challenge you!" Gai-clone, er, Rock Lee said dramatically, sinking into a taijutsu stance that Sirius didn't recognize.

"... Why?" Sirius asked, still slightly dazed.

"Because I wish to prove that hard work can beat genius!" He said dramatically.

"... Was that _not_ obvious?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow, "I mean, even people who are called geniuses have to do hard work in order to get anything done."

"So you agree with me?" Rock Lee said excitedly, "Yosh!"

"I'm... a bit confused." Sirius finally admitted. "What exactly, is going on?"

"Very well! I shall explain, so as to show you my flames of youth!" Rock Lee shouted, "Due to my chakra coils, I am incapable of using chakra. Even so, I wish to be a ninja! So even though I was the dead last, I wish to train myself until I have become an excellent ninja!"

"Okay." Sirius nodded. "That makes sense. And that's actually pretty admirable. But uh, why did you challenge me?"

"Because you are one of the genius Uchiha, and were the Rookie of the Year of your year!" He shouted again, "So I wish to prove myself by fighting you!"

"... I've also been an actual ninja for little more than a day." Sirius pointed out. "And you've been one for what, a year? What exactly are you hoping to prove?"

Rock Lee hesitated. "Uh... I must admit that I did not quite think this through." He finally admitted. "As punishment, I shall climb the Hokage monument without my hands, and carrying a boulder a hundred times!"

"Weren't you going to run around Konoha fifty times?" Sirius asked, still horribly confused.

"YOSH!" Rock Lee shouted cheerfully. "But before I can do my punishments, I must stop you from capturing the most unyouthful Tora!"

"Wait, if you're doing that anyways, then why did you need to challenge Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked, looking as if she was trying to bite back laughter. Sirius shot her a dirty look that she ignored.

"Because it would be unyouthful to force Sasuke to fight in such a limited way!" Lee replied. Sirius rolled his eyes, then nodded at the other two.

"Here, Lee wants to fight, so I'll stay and fight him. You two go find the cat." He said with a sigh. "Come on, Lee. Let's see what wins, bloodline or training. I promise I'll go all out." He knew he was going to lose. He was pretty sure that Lee knew that he knew he was going to lose. But he'd be damned if he went down without a fight, and it'd be insulting if he didn't throw everything he had into this.

Lee grinned, falling into his own combat stance. "I apologize that I cannot say the same, for my sensei has told me that I can only go all out if I am defending my friends." Lee said, "But nevertheless, I shall fight you as well as I can!"

Then Lee simply seemed to disappear. Sirius had a second to stare at the position he'd just been in before he felt something slam into his chest like the hogwarts express, and send him flying backwards. He gritted his teeth, rolling as he hit the ground, and came up with his kunai out. He quickly tossed up a trio of shields to lessen the number of directions Lee could come from, then quickly waited for Lee to reappear. After a second, he did. Sirius immediately tried to hit him with an Impediment Jinx, which Lee dodged. Sirius grumbled under his breath, then started flinging them practically at random, trying to catch Lee in at least one of them.

Unfortunately, the kid was amazingly fast, and managed to dodge every single attack, closing in on Sirius with no visible trouble. Sirius, on the other hand, was barely able to keep up even with repeated castings of a nonverbal Homenum Revelio. He'd just see a flash of light for a second, fling a brace of impediment jinxes at it, and swear as the next one was on the other side of him entirely. The only reason he hadn't completely lost was because even Lee had trouble with the magical shields, and took a few seconds to break one down. By the time he managed, Sirius would turn his own shirt into a portkey and find somewhere else to cower behind a new trio of shields. Just because he was a Gryffindor didn't mean that he couldn't recognize when getting kicked in the face was a terrible idea. Though admittedly, he'd only learned _after_ dying.

Eventually, Lee suddenly stopped. "I see that you have also undergone the most youthful speed training!" Lee shouted (did he ever not?).

"No. My bloodline lets me teleport." Sirius shook his head. "It lets me do a lot of things, now that I think about it." And frankly, it did. But then again it was magic, and he'd spent most of his life mastering it. Beyond that, the Marauders had been geniuses, masters of spellcrafting, though admittedly, they went about doing things in a particularly stupid way. Even Wormtail was brilliant in his own way, for all that everyone thought him the least of the four. Remus had been a master of Runes and Defense, James Transfiguration and flying, Peter, well, Peter wasn't good at class, but he was stealthy, and more than capable of playing the crowds like a master artist. Even if Peter didn't have charisma, he knew how to best place the ones that did. And in the end, hadn't that been what had brought about their end? Because Peter was an actor, Peter always had a back door, Peter knew how to convince the crowd that he simply had nothing to do with it.

"I see!" Lee seemed even happier at this for some reason, and Sirius backed further into his shields nervously. "Then this is truly a fight between hard work and natural talent!"

"... Yup." Sirius lied. He had, after all, worked hard for his magical skills, and getting it brushed off as natural talent was simply annoying. But on the other hand, what else could he do? Because admitting it _wasn't_ just natural talent would bring on questions, questions he didn't want to answer, couldn't answer.

Lee grinned, and leaped in the air. A second later, four massive weights came flying at the shields, each one smashing into them with a noise like the ringing of a gong. Of course, the second he saw the first one, Sirius had portkeyed himself to another completely random part of the street, but that was still bloody terrifying.

And then Lee was even faster. Sirius managed to survive one more shield collapse before Lee smashed his fist into Sirius's right arm, breaking it. Sirius dropped the kunai with a yelp of pain, but decided to take the opportunity to hit the insanely fast genin with a stunner from his other kunai. That... didn't work. Lee just dodged the stunner with the same blinding speed, and drove a fist into Sirius's gut.

Sirius dropped immediately, barely able to keep from puking, and thanking Merlin that Lee hadn't been using anywhere near full force for that hit. "Yeah." He finally managed to gasp out. "I lost that one. Good fight though."

"Indeed, it was most youthful!" Lee said, then suddenly froze, a look of horror on his face. "Oh no! I removed my weights!"

"No worries." Sirius wheezed. "Accio Lee's Weights!" He felt his magic tug at the weights, which felt insanely heavy for about a second before they smashed into his chest.

When he woke up, he was in the hospital, with Lee apologizing repeatedly. "It's fine." He waved off Lee's apologies. "I just didn't expect them to be _that_ heavy_._ That's really impressive."

"Ah, thank you!" Lee said, immediately perking up. "It is most youthful of you to say that! Perhaps you should join Gai-sensei and myself for training sometime?"

Sirius was about to blurt out a hasty refusal before he stopped to consider the question. He was, frankly, bollocks at Taijutsu. And while his spells seemed to have an advantage (however slight) over most chakra based things, it didn't mean much if he couldn't actually _hit_, as Lee had so kindly demonstrated. A single impediment hex and stupify would likely have won him the match, but since he wasn't even able to aim his wand for long enough for the spell to have a chance of connecting... the Sharingan would probably help, but all it was likely to do was what had happened with his detection spell. Tell him where Lee was too late for him to actually do anything about it.

On the other hand, Lee's training had apparently brought him to such a level where Sirius had trouble even seeing him. And if Lee was to be believed, that was through pure physical ability, no chakra involved. Naruto and Sirius could both get temporary bursts of speed by launching themselves forwards, but Lee was capable of maintaining that speed, with absolutely no chakra expenditure. And even if he was a Gryffindor, that didn't mean that he didn't feel ambition, or hate losing.

"I'd love to." He finally said, mentally cringing because Kakshi's training had been punishing enough. "I'm probably nowhere near your level, and I doubt I'll ever be," He did, after all, have both magical projects and ninjutsu to work on as well, "but I'd appreciate the chance to grow stronger. Um, I realize this might be a bit presumptuous, but would you mind if I invited Naruto and Ino as well?"

"Not at all!" Lee beamed, "I hope that we may awaken the fires of their youth as well!"

"... Right." Sirius just smiled and nodded.

* * *

AN: First thing to note, if you don't review from an account, I can't reply to your review. And I'd prefer to get this stuff out in a reply to a review, not taking up space in the story. Sorry. ^.^" Second thing to note, tons of thanks to all my reviewers.

Here's some questions that were asked that I'm answering.

Ages: During peacetime, Academy starts at 8, ends at 12. During war, these are both kicked down 3 years to 5 and 9 respectively.

Mangekyo vs. Occlumency (again): Occlumency, being magic, reduces the tsukuyomi to the level of a standard genjutsu, then treats it as an attempted legilimency probe. Sirius wins because he's more experienced with Occlumency than Itachi is with the Mangekyo, specifically. Also, in any _direct_ showdown, Magic, calling on the fundamental forces of reality, and being absolutely broken (Killing curse just flat out kills you, spells can make things out of nothing, flight is aristotelian, and magic generally rips physics even more of a new one than Chakra with stuff like actual shapeshifting and just flat out destroying energy), beats chakra, which is more power of self. Admittedly, it only wins enough to turn otherwise auto-win abilities into contests of will (fiendfyre vs amaterasu ends with whichever user has a stronger will winning, and killing curse takes effect fast enough to prevent Orochimaru's various immortality techniques). On the other hand, chakra users can use chakra to to avoid that direct showdown, and often do (dodging an incoming attack is easier with a kawarimi than, say, apparition, and clone techniques mean that the mage is fighting a copy, so their actions are a moot point). Sirius is personally better off because he can use both, and will later learn how to use one to compensate for the weaknesses of the other (clones shooting en masse makes it hard to dodge, a great fireball gives more fire than a mere incendio, wind techniques are usually both invisible and combat worthy, etc). On the other hand, he's not ever going to be as good at either as someone of the same (actual) age who's been training specifically at one (though in this case, he's dropped his physical training in favor of magical).

Ninja Mind Shields: I was reminded that these do, in fact, exist. Good thing Sirius only targeted civilians so far then!

Clarification on how an Uchiha managed to befriend other clan kids: As part of a major clan, no one was willing to kick him out of their stores or whatever without justification. As Sirius Black, who doesn't much like the Uchiha himself, isn't too much of an insensitive jerk, and in the Harry Potter timeline managed to befriend a Bastion of Light despite being from a family that practically defined the Dark, befriending a bunch of people who dislikes his family but had no particular reason to specifically dislike him wasn't exactly hard (walk into Yamanka flower shop, buy flowers, don't be evil). As for why he didn't befriend non-clan kids... he didn't know them. Simple as that. Even if the Uchiha are kind of shunned, they're still effective nobility among other effective nobles.

Why didn't Sirius ask about ANBU investigations when he woke up? He didn't know the ANBU investigated. Investigation is more of a Cop thing, and that was his family. The family that got wiped out. He probably asks later and gets deflected by the Hokage, who as an ancient and experienced ninja, is fully capable of deflecting a slytherin raised hit wizard who acts the quintessential Gryffindor. He's capable of looking underneath the underneath. He doesn't _like_ doing so.

Naruto's background. He was disliked. Some people hated him. He was feared. He wasn't abused, he wasn't sabotaged (except by Mizuki, and Mizuki was pretty equal about that among non-clan kids, being a traitor and all), he was just ignored, avoided, and generally shunned as much as possible. He got bad prices and low quality goods, but people didn't, for example, hunt him down and beat him up. ANBU took care of the few idiots who tried, and the rest decided, "hey, let's not piss off the creature that's basically a natural disaster."

Why was Lee so fast even before he took the weights off? Because frankly, compared to canon!Sasuke, Sirius is crap in a fight, and Lee managed to thoroughly thrash canon!Sasuke

Edit: Got a review I want to answer to, but don't have the time to get another chapter done (and the next probably won't be done for like a week.)

I've always pictured the Mangekyo's illusion technique like a D&D spell, but where it'd normally say "Save vs. Will (that is, sufficient willpower lets you ignore it, yes I know that's not quite how Genjutsu works)" It just says, "No save." Occlumency just says, "Even if you'd normally not be able to save against a mind affecting spell, you may attempt a save." So normally unblocked abilities like Tsukyami and Legilimency can now both be blocked against by testing your will against the user. On the other hand, if Sirius goes up against someone who specializes in Genjutsu, he's going to lose, because he's worse at blocking than they are at attacking. Basically, being able to block stuff like the Tsukuyomi is a special side effect, not a statement of power level. It's a insanely useful one, but it's still useless if the user's better on the offense than he is on the defense. So if, say, Kurenai hits him with even a minor genjutsu and actually puts effort into making it stick, he'll probably lose. And once Itachi gets better, Itachi will probably win as well.

All spells used so far are pretty much as per the Harry Potter wiki. Magic does in fact conjure matter out of nothing (Augameni makes water, avis summons birds, engorgio and reducto change the size of an object without apparently affecting density, etc). Conservation of mass might officially be a rule (and I doubt it is), but it's definitely not enforced. Sirius's personally crafted spells tend to be pranks, you know, stuff that turns your hair pink. He might make more powerful spells later, but they'll mostly be modifications on common ones (a wide-area of effect impediment jinx, for example).


	5. A Journey to Wave

Disclaimed.

Chapter 5

_10 years ago:_

_He closed his eyes and turned the stone over in his hand three times. He knew it had happened, because he heard slight movements around him that suggested frail bodies shifting their footing on the earthy, twig-strewn ground that marked the outer edge of the forest. He opened his eyes and looked around. They were neither ghost nor truly flesh, he could see that. They resembled most closely the Riddle that had escaped from the diary so long ago, and he had been memory made nearly solid. Less substantial than living bodies, but much more than ghosts, they moved toward him. And on each face, there was the same loving smile._

_James was exactly the same height as Harry. He was wearing the clothes in which he had died, and his hair was untidy and ruffled, and his glasses were a little lopsided, like Mr. Weasley's. _

_Lupin was younger, and much less shabby, and his hair was thicker and darker. He looked happy to be back in this familiar place, scene of so many adolescent wanderings. _

_Lily's smile was widest of all. She pushed her long hair back as she drew closer to him, and her green eyes, so like his, searched his face hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at him enough. (1)_

_But Sirius... although Harry had called for him, Sirius was missing._

_Harry glanced over them, a frown flickering over his face. "Where's Sirius?" He asked, his breath catching. "Didn't he- did he not want to come?"_

"_He wanted to, I'm sure." James replied, "But he didn't hear the call. The stone only calls the dead, not the living."_

"_He's not dead?" Harry's voice was sharp, almost excited._

"_Not quite." Remus agreed. "You see, he didn't die like we did. He fell through the Veil, and like most things in the department of mysteries, the veil has side effects."_

"_Where is he? Why didn't he come back?" Harry demanded._

"_He couldn't." Lily replied, the sadness in her voice obvious. "The Veil is one way. But you've done well, even without him." Her smile turned brilliant, "You've been so brave."_

A single day of training with Team Gai taught Sirius one thing. Team Gai had a drive that he simply didn't have. Each of them desired perfection, desired the impossible, and was willing to go to any lengths to achieve it. And each of their _starting_ points was where any other ninja would say, "Good enough." Rock Lee wanted to be a ninja, despite his inability to use chakra. And so he began with a mastery of taijutsu. Tenten (No family name), wanted to master every weapon. And so she began by learning enough fuinjutsu and weapons crafting to create and cart around a veritable armory. Neji wanted to escape the bonds of his fate and the family in which he was born (Though you'd never hear him admit it). And so he began by mastering a single taijutsu style to an extent that he could reverse engineered techniques he was forbidden to learn.

Sirius, having died once, couldn't find anything so absolute in his heart (except a desire to not die again, because he'd failed, failed everyone and everything that ever mattered, and he _refused_ to ever let that happen again) and so he doubted that he'd ever achieve their heights. But doubt was for people who weren't gryffindors, and so he did the best he could, serving as a sparring partner (though punching bag might be a better term) for Lee, and joining them for a couple laps each morning (the most he could do before collapsing).

The next month seemed to fall into a routine. Train with Gai's team in the mornings, before Kakashi appeared, train with Kakashi in the evenings, and then spend some time spellcrafting and working with runes before going to sleep.

And then Naruto decided to throw a tantrum. Well, Sirius allowed, it wasn't quite a tantrum, and it _was_ rather justified, but still. It had been rather unexpected, to say the least. Kakashi had dragged them to the Hokage's office as per usual, and, also as per usual, he'd asked for a D Rank. Then Naruto spoke up.

"No!" He shouted, looking extremely irritated. "Old man, why do we have to do all these crappy missions? We-" Sirius wasn't very proud to say that he panicked when shot the silencer at Naruto.

"Er... ignore him." Sirius said sheepishly while Ino giggled at them, or more accurately, at Naruto's offended stomping. "We're sorry for, you know... that." He waved at Naruto, who presumably tried to shout at him.

"No, no." The Hokage said, looking amused as well. "I'm assuming he wanted a C-Rank?"

Naruto nodded frantically, as Sirius dismissed the silencing spell.

"Hell yeah!" The blond boy shouted, then blinked. "Oh, hey, I can talk again! Take that, teme!"

"Yeah, that would be because I dismissed the silencing spell." Sirius pointed out.

"Whatever, you just don't want to-" Naruto began, before Ino whacked them both on the back of their heads.

"Concentrate!" She hissed at them. The boys mumbled quick apologies, then returned to something approaching standing at attention.

"Hm..." The hokage hummed thoughtfully, tapping his pipe against the desk, then glanced at Kakashi. "Do you believe they're ready to take a C-Rank?"

"Maa." He sighed, "I'm sure my cute little genin would at least be able to get through one, even if it took a bit of effort."

"... Isn't a C-Rank basically just a D-rank that goes outside the village?" Sirius asked after a moment. "I feel a bit offended."

"But there could be bandits!" Kakashi pointed out cheerfully ruffling Sirius's hair. He let him, his hair looked terrible anyways, and he wasn't sure how to fix it. "One there's a threat of combat, the rank increases. Outside of war of course."

"What about during a war?" Ino asked curiously.

"Then even D-ranks have a threat of combat!" Kakashi replied. His cheerfulness sounded slightly forced this time, though Sirius was pretty sure that Naruto, at least, had missed it.

"So do we get a C-Rank?" Naruto interrupted impatiently, "I've never been out of the village, and it's gotta be more interesting than weeding!"

"I wouldn't bet on it." Sirius muttered under his breath.

The hokage suddenly nodded, and called out, "Tazuna!" An old man who looked somewhat drunk appeared. "You wanted an escort back to wave to protect your bridge, correct?" He confirmed.

"Yeah." The old man replied, nodding, "There's some super bad people attacking it and trying to keep me from building my super bridge."

Sirius twitched. Did _everyone _have some sort of verbal tic?

"I see." The hokage replied, nodding. "In that case, it seems that this genin team will be escorting you."

Tazuna peered at them. "Huh? They look like a bunch of super brats. Especially the short one, he looks like a moron."

"... Hey!" Naruto gave an angry shout after glancing around. "I'm the short one!" Sirius and Ino quickly grabbed him before he could jump forwards and try to maim their client.

"I guess the real reason we get paid extra is because our clients can be annoying." Sirius muttered under his breath. Naruto calmed down a bit as he snickered at the joke.

"Well, anyways!" The bridge builder decided. "I expect you to protect me with your lives!" Sirius frowned at him, staring into his eyes, and his fingers twitched with the urge to pull out his kunai and check if he was telling the truth. There was something about the man that just felt profoundly untrustworthy.

"Well, my cute little students!" Kakashi announced, giving them an eye-smile, "We'll be meeting up at the gates at eight in the morning. Don't be late!"

"TEME-SENSEI!" Naruto screeched. "Whatddya mean don't be late! You're always the late one!"

"Hm, did you say something?" He asked, cocking his head. Sirius chuckled as Naruto fumed and Ino carefully kept from giggling and ruining even the pretence of professionalism in front of the client.

The next day found Tazuna and Team Kakashi in front of the gates. "Is everyone here?" Kakashi asked cheerfully. "Anyone need anything?"

"Seeing as you're the one who's here an hour late, no, I think we're good." Ino replied dryly.

"Maa." Kakashi sighed, "What happened to the days when children respected their elders?"

Sirius couldn't keep the snort from escaping. Not only was he older than Kakashi (mentally anyways), but their team had Naruto, who routinely called the _hokage_ Old Man, to his face. Not even the Marauders would have been audacious enough to call Dumbledore that.

Kakashi sent his team a faux-hurt look, before indicating that they should begin moving. The first few days passed uneventfully, and even Naruto calmed down after a couple hours of looking around, excited at finally being out of the village.

It was midway through the sixth day that they came across a rather suspicious puddle. Sirius frowned at it, then glanced around. He didn't think there were any streams nearby, and he hadn't recalled any rain for the last few days. Maybe there'd been a small shower ahead of where his group was that just never got to them? But no, there didn't seem to be any rain anywhere else either.

His attention was attracted by Ino's frantic hand gestures. _Puddle. Enemy. 2._ Wha-?

He frowned at her in confusion, sending back, _Question. Enemy._ She nodded, waving at the puddle, then reached up to tap her forehead. A moment of trying to piece things together, he realized, and sent her a grateful nod. Then he noticed Naruto snickering. _What?_ He signed irritably.

_Slow._ Naruto signed back, still snickering. Sirius flipped him off, then raised an eyebrow at their sensei.

_Ignore._ Their sensei quickly signed back, hiding his fingers from the puddle behind his book and giggling pervertedly. _Information. Unknown-alignment._

The three genin nodded back, ignore their teacher's perverted giggles. As they passed the puddle, the three of them tensed. When it failed to attack, they relaxed. Which was a mistake, since about five meters after they passed it, a chain came flying out and tore apart Kakashi-sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, turning and staring at the bits of bloo- wait, that was wood. He must have kawaramied out.

"One down." One of the two ninja from behind them growled. Sirius took a second to glance them over. They appeared to be from mist, and were fighting with a large shuriken chain that tied them to each other.

"Naruto, clone spam." Sirius quickly ordered, "I'll play support. Ino, what's your switch speed?"

"Two seconds at this range." She replied tersely as Naruto began sending a wave of clones at the two mist-nin.

"Fine." Sirius replied, wincing as the chain tore apart a couple of clones that proceeded to explode. It wouldn't have been that bad except it set off a chain reaction that had _all_ the clones exploding.

Sirius absently decided that he _really_ needed to pick up more ninja techniques instead of just relying on his wizardry. The only problem was that he had years of battle-honed combat training as a wizard overriding his tiny bit of practice as a ninja. When he fought, he defaulted to magic, not ninjutsu and taijutsu. That, he decided had to change. He needed to learn how to use both, and learn properly. In the meantime though... Sirius grinned and sent a Sectumsempra at the first one's throat. With a gurgle, the man collapsed, apparently not having expected the invisible blade, and thus not having realized he should be dodging. The falling body tugged on the chain, sending the other attacker off balance for long enough for Naruto's clones to swarm him. It only took Naruto a little bit of effort to neutralize the other attacker.

"Good job!" Kakashi said cheerfully appearing from behind them.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted happily, "You're alive!"

"Kawarami is a very useful technique, my cute little student!" Kakashi replied, giving the three one of his eye smiles. "Now while Sasuke-kun and I have a quick chat, Ino-chan's going to interrogate our other chunin and find out what he knows, ne?"

Ino nodded, taking a breath. "Right." She whispered, then strode over to the captured ninja.

"I won't-" He began. Sirius didn't hear the rest of it, partly because Kakashi had dragged him off for their little chat, but mainly because Ino's jutsu had taken hold.

"That wasn't your first kill." Kakashi said plainly, giving Sirius a serious look. Sirius shook his head. "What was?"

"I'd prefer not to explain." He replied with a wince. Kakashi frowned at him, but finally shrugged.

"As long as it didn't hurt anyone on our side." He finally decided, then continued. "Now how about you explain that technique you just used? It looked like a cutting wind technique, but I didn't recognize it."

"... Bloodline." Sirius replied, fighting back an amused smile. That explanation was ridiculously useful.

"Sasuke." Kakashi said seriously. "I need to know. If you've developed your sharingan, and copied a wind technique that I didn't recognize, then you probably-"

"My sharingan isn't active yet." Sirius interrupted. "It's part of my bloodline, I swear. Look, I'll use it again, you try to copy it with your sharingan."

"Maa. It's not that I'm suspicious of you, Sasuke-kun, it's just that your bloodline seems to be doing quite a few things." Kakashi said cheerfully.

"... To be fair, my other bloodline ability does a lot of things too." Sirius protested after a moment.

"Maybe you could give me a quick rundown of your abilities?" Kakashi suggested, "I'm the team leader, so it's important that I have an idea of your capabilities."

"You're not asking the others about theirs." Sirius pointed out.

"They don't pull out new abilities every time they enter a fight." Kakashi replied, sounding amused.

"Touche." Sirius muttered in... well, he couldn't call it english, since he was pretty sure it was french. He ignored Kakashi's slightly confused look in favor of listing his abilities. "Most of my abilities are battle oriented of some sort. Which is good, because ninja. The notable ones do things like cut, cause people to freeze up for a few seconds, or knock them out. I can also use more minor combat spells like shooting ropes or launching them either towards or away from myself. Defensively, I can create shields. Non combat abilities include some minor healing, you know, things like cuts, or creating light. I think the major ones there do things like making an item fly and teleporting. And I might be able to shapeshift, but I haven't gotten that working, even though I'm pretty sure it's possible."

"Hm... what are the ranges of your blood limit's jutsu's?" Kakashi asked after a moment.

"Er, mid to long range." Sirius said after a moment of trying to figure out where his abilities fell. "I can use them at shorter ranges if I need to, but..."

"It isn't the best place?" Kakashi suggested. "Hm. It looks like you'll have to be our ninjutsu specialist. And you'd mentioned that the justus didn't require too much chakra... Yes. I'll work with you on mastering a few more utility jutsus, and we'll shore up your close combat ability a bit."

"I'm working on that with Gai-sensei." Sirius admitted. "That fight with Rock Lee was a bit of a demonstration on how hard it is to win when I can't even hit my opponent."

"Yes, Gai's students are rather skilled. They work hard for it." He admitted freely. "Of course, I'm sure that all my own cute little students need is to work a bit harder as well..."

"Er..." Sirius inched away from him. For some reason, the way he said that felt like a threat. Luckily, Ino appeared at that moment.

"They're going after the bridge builder." She said tersely. "There's a man named Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist as well. He's their boss, and has a minion named Haku who's going to dress up as a Hunter nin and make it look like he took out Zabuza if he loses. He's supposed to be really good as well. And Haku's got a ice bloodline that lets him use some sort of mirror trapping ability. He's a senbon specialist."

"Maa. If we're going against Zabuza... we should probably call this off. The mission's just a C-Rank, not exactly worth enough to go against an A-Rank opponent. Well, let's talk to Tazuna and see if he can explain anything."

The following discussion was enlightening. Apparently, a "super bad man" named Gato had taken control of Wave, and was trying to keep Tazuna from creating the bridge. He knew that there was a chance of ninja trying to kill him, but decided to hire a C-rank because he simply didn't have enough money for a higher rank mission. After a quick bit of negotiation that reminded Sirius of one of his father's arguments and thus had him zoning out, they decided to send a message back to Konoha to arrange for reinforcements while they made their towards Wave, and more importantly, Tazuna's family, which was still vulnerable.

Unfortunately, the a day and a boat trip later revealed that it might have been wiser to wait. They were walking cautiously down the path when Kakshi suddenly let out a yell. "Everyone down!" He ordered, grabbing Tazuna and shoving him down to the ground. The three genin scattered, tossing themselves away and down from the center. After all, if it was an explosive tag, no point in being near the explosion. Luckily, it was just a giant sword. Sirius snorted mentally. When had it hit the point that a giant sword was a _just_ thing?

"Well well well." A voice said. Sirius glanced at the sword to see a large man wrapped in bandages standing on it dramatically. Sirius was pretty sure he approved of the drama, but disapproved of the man trying to kill him. Which was typical, really. "Sharingan Kakashi. How nice-" Kakashi flung a handful of shuriken at him, while bodily throwing Tazuna towards the gening. Sirius whipped out his kunai and casting a quick cushioning charm as Naruto ran towards him, grabbing him out of the air.

"Come on old man!" Naruto said cheerfully, "We'll get you out of here. Believe it!"

"He just- and you just-" The man began babbling. Sirius hit him with a featherlight charm, and the three of them began running, Naruto carrying the old man.

"Haku!" Zabuza shouted as Kakashi focused on keeping him pinned down. "Take out the brats!"

"Ino, I hit the old man with a jutsu to make him lighter." Sirius got out, "You take him. Naruto and I'll hold off the ice guy."

"Naruto, if you let Sasuke-kun die, I'm throwing you to the fan girls. Sasuke-kun, if you let the idiot die, I'm telling the fangirls that you're a tragic broken bird who needs comforting." Ino threatened before slinging the bridge builder over her shoulder and continuing running.

"Hey!" Naruto protested, "Why do _I_ get called the idiot?"

"Shut up, dobe!" Sirius panted, coming to a stop and pulling out his kunai. A quick summoning charm later, they heard a yelp and a boy a few years older than themselves came crashing out of the trees. Naruto grinned, summoning his first wave of explosive shadow clones and sending them at their opponent. Unfortunately, he recovered before they could get close and sent a spray of senbon at them, taking most of them out. Sirius scowled, then spat a great fireball at their target. Haku?

The fireball dissipated against the wall of ice that he'd put up. It became worse when the wall shattered into hundreds of frozen shards that suddenly began accelerating towards the two genin. Sirius quickly waved a shield into existence, letting the shards of ice smash into it.

"I'm a hunter nin from Kiri." Their target shouted. "I am here for the missing-nin Zabuza."

"He doesn't actually think we're that stupid, does he?" Naruto asked as he sent another wave of explosive shadow clones.

"To be fair, if we hadn't already known about this, it might have worked." Sirius pointed out absently as he sent a blasting charm at their opponent. He felt a moment of satisfaction as the intercepting ice wall exploded inwards, sending slicing shards at the missing nin.

"I see." Their opponent murmured, "You forced the demon brothers to talk, didn't you? That's how you avoided getting caught off guard."

"Yeah, we leaf ninja are awesome." Sirius replied tauntingly. "For example. I've always found it disappointing that the village hidden in the leaves didn't use leaves much. Let's change that." He waved the pair of kunai in a pattern that he'd only used in a prank, but that like so many other spells, had much more potential that most would expect. Naruto and Haku both took a step back as a tree by the edge of the road began to wave without wind, then pull it's roots out of the ground and rise to fight. "Naruto," Sirius whispered urgently. "The tree should remain animated for five minutes." He nodded towards the magically animated tree that even now, was flailing wildly at the ice user. "I'm going to trap the ice guy in a bubble with it. He can break out if he hits it with enough force, so it won't hold him for long. The tree's there to keep him from being able to hit the bubble. After that, I'm going to collapse. You're going to have to carry me to Tazuna's place."

Sirius could already feel his magical core straining, and felt exhausted. Transfiguration had always been James's thing, not his. Battle magic, on the other hand... he slashed his kunai, casting the area-based variation of the shield spell and tossing it around Haku. It was lucky that the area he needed to cover was so small, otherwise that could have been painful. As the spell left the tip of his kunai, he collapsed, gasping. Naruto grabbed him, slinging him over his shoulder, then summoned a pack of shadow clones. Then he summoned a pack of explosive clones, had the explosive clones henge into a copy of him (Did he really look that emo? He felt like he was looking at Harry during one of his brooding phases.), and then had all the clones kawarimi with each other in order to confuse who was which one. Then they all scattered.

Luckily the five minute head start was enough for them to catch up with Ino, Naruto having enough chakra to waste a significant amount of it giving himself boosts to catch up to their more chakra-limited partner.

"Hey Ino!" Naruto said cheerfully, "The Teme's got the ice prince contained, and then I shot distractions everywhere. I'll make some more in a minute. Kakashi-sensei hasn't caught up yet though."

"Good **huff** to know, **huff**." Ino panted out, still running.

"Can you put me down now?" Tazuna complained in a tiny voice. "I keep wondering how I'm not falling onto the ground! The girls' only twelve, and half my size! How's she carrying me anyways?"

"Not 'til someone better 'an us shows up." Sirius muumbled into Naruto's back. "'nd we're ninja, 'at's how."

"That's not an-" Tazuna began only to shut up when Ino whacked him.

"I'm **huff** running! No **huff** taunting!" She gasped out. It was about then that Sirius finally blacked out.

When he woke up, they were inside a small house. He was lying in a bed with Ino watching over him, and Kakashi was in another one. "Ugh." He groaned, sitting up. "Ino. What happened?"

"Oh, Sasuke-kun! You're awake!" She smiled at him. "Good. Well, as for what happened... not much, really. We got here. Kakashi-sensei got here a bit later. Apparently he was winning the fight when the fake hunter-nin, Haku, interrupted. It gave the missing nin enough of an upper hand that he was able to turn things around and win. He was about to take out Kakashi-sensei when our reinforcements arrived and chased him off."

"Oh?" Sirius struggled to sit up. "Who are our reinforcements?"

"Team eight." She beamed, "Kiba, Sakura, and Shino. You know, the traditional team with the dead last, the two top scorers." She pouted. "I still can't believe that forehead girl did better than me on the tests! Just because I spent more time learning clan techniques than I did memorizing the relations between Fire Country and Wind Country... I mean, who cares if we're in an alliance? If we show up with the same goals, we'll be working together anyways, and if we have opposing ones, we'll be trying to kill each other!"

Sirius shook his head, torn between amusement and the residual horror at the reminder that these kids were actively being trained to kill people (as opposed to passively being trained to kill people, like back at home during the war).

"I still can't believe everyone thought I was going to be rookie of the year." He noted absently. "I'm barely average at taijutsu and terrible with thrown weapons."

"And you have enough chakra to spit a great fireball every second for a minute." She pointed out. "And besides, you're an Uchiha." She winked at him, and he rolled his eyes in return.

"My whole family was made up of arrogant berks." He complained. She giggled at him.

"I know. Daddy always said the best thing about you is that you were nothing like them." She paused, "Actually, I think he said the only good thing about you is that you were nothing like them. I think he took offense to a eight year old trying to flirt."

"I didn't know what it meant!" Sirius protested. It was better than trying to claim he'd forgotten that he was eight.

"Uh huh." Ino said sarcastically. "Anyways, you might want to come downstairs. Kurenai-sensei's training us. She's doing lighter training that Kakashi-sensei usually does, just some basic sparring while water-walking so we can guard the bridge while we train. Apparently though, it should take both of the jounin, Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza, about a week to recover, it's been three days, so you've got another four days to get better."

"I'm better now." Sirius replied blithely, swinging himself out of bed. He stumbled woozily for a second, but as he held on to a nearby table, he felt the world settling around him. He'd worked through worse than this, he decided. Now he'd focus on getting better, and not do something as stupid as exhausting himself animating a tree.

AN: Hello peopleses who are reading this! Which is a LOT more people than I ever expected. O.O Wow. Thank you for taking your time to read this. ^.^ Okay, let's see, do I actually have anything to say... Yes, yes I do!

Sirius reincarnated immediately. Which means Harry's had about 10 years since the end Deathly Hallows (without the epilogue). I wonder what he's been up to?

Everyone scattering: Ino knew it was the Demon of the Mist because she interrogated the remaining Demon Brother. At some point, Kakashi came up with orders to make sure that everyone got away without trouble.

Sirius falling unconscious: Magical exhaustion is a bitch, and he doesn't have anywhere near the reserves or magical talent required to animate a tree and throw a massive shield around an area without falling unconscious.

Sirius's magical abilities: I figure I should get these out so that he doesn't pull a new power out whenever the plot demands.

Decent amount of transfiguration skill (Slightly above NEWT level.)

Non-verbal magic. Have you noticed that?

Battle Magic: He knows a lot of it, and is fairly creative about using it. Due to magic's somewhat modular nature (adding maximus to Lumos overpowers a lumos spell, what happens when you add it to stupify?), he also tends to spellcraft.

Physical combat skill: Basic muggle martial arts training, academy training, and interceptor fist training (though he doesn't realize that the intercepter fist is a real style).

Healing magic: Enough to fix minor cuts and bruises, and to stop you from bleeding to death.

Charms: Pretty good at charms (Decently above NEWT Level)

Runes: Knows all the runes, and what they mean, but doesn't have much practice with them. Likely to screw up if trying to do anything fast.

Enchanting: Good at this. Tends to use a combo of runes and charms. Feats include the Marauder's Map and his flying bike. If he makes a broomstick, it'll fly, though nowhere near the level of, say, a Nimbus or a Firebolt.

Mary Sue-ness: To be fair, Sasuke's a Canon-sue. Sirius is just a bit more blatant about it right now.

Naruto's Role: Naruto's got stuff going on that Sirius doesn't know about. So no worries fans of the blonde jinchuuriki. He's going to be awesome as well. He's just... not, yet. But again, that's pretty much canon as well.

Sharingan: Sirius doesn't have it yet. Just wanted to note that. I'm honestly debating not ever allowing him to get it, because magic's already enough of a gamebreaker.


	6. Battle of the Bridge

Disclaimed.

Chapter 6

"_What's through this?" Harry asked, his voice hushed._

"_We don't know." The Unspeakable said flatly._

"_Well what do you know about it?" Harry's voice was somewhat amused this time._

"_No one ever comes back. And those who are marked by death, who have gone to the edge of the borders between life and death, are able to hear a whispering. Our experimental subjects claim that it's the voices of the dead." The Unspeakable's voice was carefully blank as Harry circled the veil._

"_I heard the voices last time." Harry said absently. "This time though, it's silent."_

"_You are the master of death." The Unspeakable pointed out. _

_Harry chuckled. "I'd think that'd make me _more_ able to hear them."_

"_The cloak hides you from death himself." The Unspeakable gave a shrug, as if informing Harry that this was all just a guess. "The stone gives you command over their shades. The wand allows you to create and destroy it."_

"_What do you think would happen if I walked through?" Harry mused. The unspeakable hesitated._

"_I would suggest against it." He (she? Who knew, with those masks) finally asid._

"_Yeah, well. I've never been accused of doing the smart thing." Harry said. He raised his right hand, glancing at the symbol that had burned itself into the back of his right hand. A line in a circle in a triangle. A wand over a stone over a cloak. He pointed at the veil and __**cast**__. "Point me, Sirius Black." As the symbol glowed brighter, he nodded grimly, then stepped through._

"Teme! You're alive! Don't worry us like that!" Naruto let out a cheerful yell from the breakfast table as Sirius stumbled into the room.

"Sorry about that, dobe." Sirius replied with a chuckle. "How are you? I kinda collapsed on you as we came in."

"No worries Teme." Naruto grinned at him. "I'll dispel and tell the boss that you're up. We're at the bridge, guarding Tazuna and the other bridge builders while we practice water-walking. You two are still on guard duty though. Nyeh." He stuck his tongue out at the pair.

Sirius just rolled his eyes as the bridge builder's daughter poked her head into the house. "Oh, Sasuke-kun." She said cheerfully. "Are you feeling better now?"

He nodded. "Yes mam," He said politely. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

"I'm Tsunami." She said, looking amused for some reason. "Are you genin teams standardized? A rude boy, a polite one, and a girl?"

Ino began laughing. "Hah! She's right. I bet that's how it works."

"Who'd be the rude one on Team Ten?" Sirius wondered.

"Probably Shika." She snorted, "He's so lazy, I can see him saying that being polite is 'troublesome.' And he keeps sleeping through class."

Sirius wasn't quite convinced, but quickly decided that it wasn't really worth the effort of figuring it out.

"Anyways, you've been sleeping for the last few days. You must be hungry." Tsunami waved at the table as she talked, getting some food. It wasn't very high quality, but then again, they'd had to hire a C-rank team for an A-rank mission, so that wasn't exactly surprising. Add in Wave's terrible economic condition, and well, things would be even worse.

"Thanks." Sirius said gratefully. He was starving. He'd always eaten a lot, and nowadays he was actually doing physical activity, so he needed even more.

"You're welcome." She said, giving him a pretty smile. He resisted the urge to drop into Sirius mode and start flirting. "It's the least we can do for the ninja who are protecting us."

"Why bother?" A voice whined from the doorway. "They're all going to die."

Sirius's magic flared and the windows blew out. (_What was there to gain by resisting? He would have killed me!_) He turned with a snarl, a kunai somehow in hand, and pointed at Wormtail, who was cowering- no, that wasn't Wormtail, this wasn't his world, this was just a kid who didn't know any better. He took a deep breath, suddenly realizing that Ino was holding onto his arm and trying to throw off his aim, while Tsunami was screaming and the brat was looking at him with wide, horrified, eyes.

"I need to go." Sirius spat out, and willed himself elsewhere. It wasn't until after he was sitting on top of a random tree that he realized that apparating about a mile without even making sure he was still _capable_ of apparition was probably a really bad idea, and not having any good idea of where he was going made it worse of one. He was lucky he hadn't splinched himself. "Bugger." He swore tiredly. Oh well. Better than cursing the brat. And hey, at least he knew he could do it now. It was a good thing that rapid deployment was very much a part of Hit Wizard training. He sighed, looking over the forest, and wondered how his godson was doing. Had she finally gotten together with Hermione? How'd Ron reacted to that, jealous prat that he was? Neither of them had done anything stupid like not date in order to spare his feelings, had they? The Weasley's weren't really worth it. It wasn't that he didn't like the Weasley family, it was just that Arthur seemed to think of muggles like zoo animals, Molly smothered people and seemed to think she knew best even more than Dumbledore did, Percy was a prat, and Ron was a jealous prat. Of course, Hermione was even more responsible and obsessed with authority than Remus had been (although Remus's lack of respect had probably been his and James's faults), so she wasn't perfectly clear either. At lead Fred and George were okay.

After about an hour of musing over what was happening to his friends and family (hopefully his friends were fine and his family, except Droma and Nymphie of course, were dead but it seemed to be annoyingly likely that things were going to end up the other way around), he finally decided that he should head back. Bugger brooding. That wasn't his style. He was a Gryffindor Hit Wizard, not some emotional teenager.

"-he's fine." Ino was saying worriedly.

"Any idea what caused him to... panic?" Kakashi-sensei asked her. More like interrogated really.

"Inari-kun was doing one of his 'you're-add-going-to-die' shpiels." Ino explained. "And he just... he got so angry." She sounded almost awed. "I think he blasted out the windows with nothing but chakra."

"I think it's sage chakra." Kakashi said absently, presumably looking around with his sharingan. "Do you have any idea where he went?"

"No worries, I'm back." Sirius said as he returned, shoving the door open. He glanced around, saw Tsunami, and bowed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper. I just... had a bad flashback." Kakashi's eyes narrowed, and Sirius knew that he thought he was thinking of Itachi. "I'll repair the windows." He continued, pulling out his kunai, ignoring Tsunami's flinches (civilians kept flinching near him for some reason, so he was used to it) and waving it. The shards of glass tore themselves from the ground, flying back to the windows to repair them. Almost everyone's eyes widened, except for Kakashi's whose narrowed.

"Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I just needed to be alone for right then." Sirius replied with a shrug. "Anyways, I'm really sorry about all this."

"You tried to kill my son!" She protested. "That's not really something that can be solved with an apology!"

"He shouldn't be making death threats at ninja!" Sirius insisted, then quickly added, "Also, I didn't try to kill him."

"He's eight!" She argued, "He doesn't know better! Besides it's not a death threat!"

"I'd just woken up, and I wasn't thinking straight with hunger." Sirius pointed out, "It sure sounded like one. And besides, our sensei was a chunnin by that point. Actually, he might have been a jonin, I'm not sure. But my point is, being young doesn't meant that my automatic threat... detection, doesn't notice him."

"Maa, I feel so flattered that you know so much about me." Kakashi-sensei drawled, "But she has a point. You can't go around threatening our clients. They're paying us to protect them, not kill them."

"Right, which is why I immediately removed myself from the situation." Sirius agreed. "And then- hey wait, aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"I woke up when I heard all the windows explode and our clients screaming." Kakashi said dryly.

"Ah, sorry about that." Sirius chuckled sheepishly.

Tsunami gave him a glare, and he bowed again. "Seriously, I'm very sorry about all this. But look at the bright side, I'm usually pointed at the bad guys." He tried to give her his most charming smile, then realised that the smile he used to get laid would probably not be the appropriate one and went for innocent instead. A slight smile of amusement tugged at her own lips. She was being a lot less angry than he'd expected, probably because the only thing that happened was the windows breaking. And besides, he liked to think that he'd paid forwards for trust, having saved her father.

"Fine." She finally said, "I suppose we can't really expect people who are hired to defend us _not_ be paranoid about safety. So if you don't mind me asking, how did you do that?"

"Bloodline." Kakashi sensei said, sounding amused and resigned. "Sasuke-kun here has a number of interesting abilities."

"I see." She said politely, "Well, if everyone's ready to eat now?"

The three of them quickly sat down to eat. As they finished the meal, Kakashi nodded at the two genin. "Okay, my cute little students. Now that Sasuke-kun's feeling better, we'll be rotating which four of you are on bridge duty, and which pair are guarding the house. And now that I'm conscious, we'll have one of the Jonin in each place. But for now... Sasuke-kun, what are your limitations for your bloodline ability?"

"Which one?" Sirius asked, furrowing his brow in thought. He wasn't sure what spells Kakashi knew he knew, and of those, which ones he'd actually find useful in these circumstances.

"The teleporting one that you just displayed." Kakashi answered patiently.

"Short ranges are easy." He finally said, "I can pull off about 2 miles reliably. Beyond that, I have a chance of messing up the spell and either ending up in the wrong place, or missing bits of myself."

"Missing bits of yourself?" Ino gave him a worried look that he waved off.

"It's like leaving a bit of myself behind when I apparate. It's a bit painful, but I can reattach it." In fact, he had a spell specifically designed to reattach limbs lost to splinching.

"And that loud crack?" Kakashi asked looking thoughtful.

Sirius shrugged. "I think it's possible to make it quieter, but I've never bothered to figure out how. Even at it's quietest, it's- uh, probably going to be pretty loud."

"But still, the fourth made a rather impressive name for himself with a version that required a kunai and made a bright flash... of course _he_ had unlimited range." Kakashi shrugged, and pulled out his orange book. "Maa, we can worry about it later. In the meantime, I want to see what happens next."

Ino fumed as Sirius gave the book a thoughtful look. On the one hand, he _really_ wanted a copy of that. On the other hand, asking would probably be a terrible idea, judging by the adults only sticker on the back. He finally decided to try to hit it with a duplication spell while Kakashi wasn't paying attention and just maintain the spell until he finished reading.

In the meantime though... "Kakashi sensei, would there be any problems if I set up some traps?" He asked curiously. "I'll need Naruto's help for the really big ones, but I can probably make it so that anyone who tries to attack is caught in some minor jutsus." There were a number of minor trap spells that he'd used in pranks. His favorite had actually been developed by the weasley twins, and made it so that unless you stepped on a certain path, you'd be sent flying backwards. Ninja would probably be able to ignore it since the tree-walking technique meant that sending a ninja flying when he had time to get stable was an exercise in futility, but more mundane thugs would get tossed around like leaves and even ninja would have to spend chakra. Other traps included the ones he'd set near his house, which did things like flay people alive unless they were wearing the Uchiha Uchiwa or the Uzumaki Spiral. Much as he hated his family, he had to admit, the best way to kill something was with Dark magic.

"And what happens if a civilian walks into them?" Kakashi asked disapprovingly. Sirius shrugged.

"Hm." He frowned. That was actually a good point. Most of his pranks were just aimed at everyone, with a specific way of bypassing them. If he had to worry about random strangers, then-

His thoughts were interrupted as one of Naruto's clones slammed the door open. "Kakashi-sensei! Teme! Ino-chan! There's a bunch of people attacking the bridge! Missing-nin and a bunch of thugs!"

"I thought Zabuza was supposed to stay down?" Sirius wondered absently.

"Apparently not." Kakashi said grimly. "Come on. Sasuke-kun, can you do anything to secure the house?"

Sirius nodded, then glanced at Tsunami. "You won't be able to go outside until I either get back or a day's passed, got it?" He warned her. She nodded, and the three ninja quickly made their way outside. "Listen, I need to start casting. You guys go on ahead, I'll use my bloodline to get to the bridge. I've seen it and it's not too far, so I should be able to." Kakashi nodded, grabbed Ino, and began making his way there. Sirius took a deep breath, and quickly thought over all the things he knew ninja could do. He probably wouldn't be able to stop anything higher level without a lot of runes and some help from another fully fledged wizard (which, let's face it, wasn't going to happen), but he'd be able to keep out the lower level riffraff and make it annoying to get in.

He pulled out his kunai and got to work. Locking spells made sure that the doors would have to be forced, while impervious spells around the windows made them a non-viable entrance. An area-based protego gave it some shielding from lower level attacks, and a muggle repelling charm meant that no one would be able to find it without doing the equivalent of breaking a genjutsu they were unlikely to even notice. Some quick trap spells meant that anyone trying to enter anyways would get tossed around, and a redirection spell would throw off everyone's sense of direction. He finally decided that was enough, and apparated to the bridge.

The fight seemed to be in full swing. Zabuza seemed to have picked up another missing-nin, a man with a black eyepatch and a broadsword. The two of them were holding their own again the jonin, Zabuza engaging a heavily injured Kurenai-sensei in a game of genjutsu vs. silent killing (presumably, Sirius couldn't actually see Zabuza except for brief periods where his sword would completely miss Kurenai) near the middle of the bridge, while a short distance away the swordsman fought a nearly crippled Kakashi, blade to blade and jutsu to jutsu. The remaining demon brother (who'd apparently somehow been released) was engaging Kurenai's team near the edge of the bridge closer to Sirius, and making liberal use of fire techniques to take out Shino's bug colonies and taking advantage of Zabuza's mist techniques to hide. He'd probably done something to the mist as well, because Kiba and Akamaru didn't seem to be able to use their noses properly. Sakura and Ino had both been assigned to guard duty, and were engaged in full tilt battle with a small army of perfectly normal mercenaries at the end of the bridge, and Naruto was probably trapped in that giant ice dome near the middle of the sets of fights. Sirius decided that it was time for reinforcements, and dropped a Great Fireball on the mercenary army.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino shouted, pulling herself out of the fight. "Thanks for the save!"

"No problem." He grinned, spitting another Great Fireball into the mercenaries. Apparently deciding that having someone rain fireballs on them was not in their job description, the mercenaries faltered, giving Sakura a chance to pull out of the fight as well.

"We need to rescue Forehead." Ino said urgently.

"No problem." Sirius said agreeably, pulling out a kunai, and pointing it at Sakura. She yelped as she suddenly found herself lifted into the air, then tugged towards Sirius and Ino at high speeds. Sirius felt his breath escape as the pink haired girl crashed into him, but managed to keep from falling over.

"Basic triangle formation?" Ino demanded, already moving to take point.

"They're only coming from one direction for now." Sirius disagreed. "I got center, we can just hold a line. Especially if this works." He tossed an overpowered banisher into the center of the crowd, then giggled as they began falling into each other.

"I'd have expected your fireball to take out more of them." Ino commented absently, taking up a spot as his left side and tossing a small armory's worth of shuriken into the crowd. "That barely did anything."

"Great Fireball's not very good for anything but a distraction." Sirius replied with a shrug and another banisher. "Even people who don't dodge it don't have much more trouble than minor burns, and when you're in a fight..."

"Do you know anything that can actually keep them down?" Sakura asked quickly. "If we can take these guys out, we can go help Kiba and Shino."

"Fine." Sirius took a deep breath, then jumped across the line he'd once sworn he'd never cross into Dark magic. "Fiendfyre." The inferno roared from his kunai, making him almost drop to his knees as it tore through the army, leaving nothing but ash. He was barely able to keep it from eating into the wood, forcing it forward and only forwards through will alone. Of course, being fiendfyre, it was only too happy to devour people instead of wood, giving only a token protest as he demanded that it rip through the army.

"Amaterasu save us..." Ino whispered, sounding awed. "That's really impressive for a genin."

"Thanks." Sirius gasped out, forcing the flames to recede as he realized that there weren't any targets left. He fell to one knee, panting and sweating as the spell finally ended. "They're gone. You two go join Kiba and Shino. I'm going to try to help Naruto." The girls nodded, running forwards to join their group. Sirius took a moment to absentmindedly thank Kurenai for getting Sakura to stop with her fangirling before turning to face the ice domes. Using another Dark spell seemed like a bad idea without at least seeing what else he could do about it.

A Great Fireball was his first attempt. As he expected, it completely failed to do anything. A brace of shuriken followed and failed as well. A banished rock bounced off. Reducto left a scorch mark, and confringo just blew off a few chips. Sirius absently wondered if tunneling through the ice with the blasting curse would work, but wrote it off as a bad job when he noticed that the mirror had already regenerated the damage. He could try fiendfyre again, but he wasn't sure how well he'd be able to control it's destruction. He finally decided to do things the simple way, and purposely messed up a disillusionment charm on it. The failed charm melted the mirror as he expected, and he took the chance to leap through, right into an exploding shadow clone.

"Teme!" Naruto shouted, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sirius replied, shaking himself off. And he was, the rune bracelet had come through for him. "How about you?"

"Haku is _fast_." Naruto whined. Sirius chuckled, staring around. All the mirrors showed their opponent, who'd managed to lose his mask at some point, revealing a rather feminine face.

"I don't want to kill you." The boy warned, "But if you continue to stand in Master Zabuza's way, I will."

"Sorry." Sirius shrugged, "I'd rather not have our first C-Rank be a failure. And besides, the guy's a good person, even if he _is_ a bit annoying. Building a bridge to rescue Wave from Gato and all that."

"I see." Haku gave him a faint smile. "So is that why you fight? To protect someone?" Sirius nodded.

"That's the only reason you _should_ fight." He said firmly.

"Then I am sorry that I will be killing you both." Haku replied with a nod. "You are both good people." Sirius absently wondered if their opponent was assuming he was answering for both of them before realizing that Naruto had probably already had a chat with Haku while Sirius was warding the house.

"I'm not going to die, damnit!" Naruto shouted, sounding irritated, "I told you, I'm going to be Hokage! Believe it!"

"How about we make it out of this first." Sirius offered dryly.

"Then I shall fight your dreams with my own." Haku said serenely. And then there was ice.

Sirius didn't realize until the third volley what was going on. By then he and Naruto had both been turned into pincushions, despite Sirius's frantic attempts at shielding as Haku shot from mirror to mirror, spraying senbon made of ice through the gaps between Siriu's shields and he tried to get them up in time.

Sirius gasped as he frantically tried to keep up, tried to match his speed to the insanity that was Haku's. It was on the fifth volley that he felt his eyes begin to burn, the sixth that Haku seemed to begin to slow down. Luckily by that point, all the shields were up, and they were protected by a star fort made of magical shields. After Haku dropped senbon on them from above, Sirius tossed a shield there as well.

"Now what?" Naruto grumbled.

"I side-long you with me and we leave?" Sirius offered. Naruto gave him a confused glance.

"Ne?"

Sirius was about to explain when Haku decided to hit them with a frozen sledgehammer, shattering three of the shields and sending a spray of senbon directly at them. Sirius watched as they raced towards them, three of them flying for Naruto's vitals. It wasn't enough time to toss up a shield, not enough time to do anything, really, so he simply shoved Naruto out of the way and took the senbon himself.

He felt things going dark, and heard Naruto crying out. "Teme? Teme? Sasuke? Are you okay?" He tried to respond but he couldn't bring himself to speak through the haze and fog.

"Is this the first time you've seen a comrade die?" The other voice asked faintly.

"You..." Naruto snarled, and Sirius felt a heavy aura that smashed through his occlumency barriers and sent the pain and lost sensations that he'd been holding back rushing in. The last thing he heard was a roar. "**I'll kill you!**"

Then everything went black.

AN: Shorter than most of my chapters thus far, so sorry about that. ^.^" Hm. Not much to say here. Battle of the bridge changes because Zabuza sees that there's two jonin and forces Gato to hire a second missing-nin. Naruto was the one who wasn't tired this time, so he was there when Haku caught used the ice dome. Sirius gains apparition and his sharingan for his bag of tricks, and displays that he does have some pretty deadly offense as well. Kurenai managed to get Sakura up to snuff, and broke her of her fangirling over Sasuke (which was detrimental, as opposed to Hinata's fangirling over Naruto, which provided her with inspiration, and was probably used as encouragement during training).

What else... Zabuza and Haku didn't talk much here. Well, Sirius doesn't hear most of the conversation. And somehow, things end the same way, Sasuke and Naruto in the demonic ice mirrors, and Haku flinging a set of senbon to take out Sasuke. Of course, this time, Naruto's unlikely to be stop his rampage out of surprise.

Sakura and Ino are both decently trained ninja, who can make decent use of kawarami and bunshin, and have kunai and shuriken. They're able to at least hold their own against any number of perfectly mundane thugs who don't know chakra.

Kiba and Shino are trying to hold back the last demon brother, but Shino's technique relies on draining over the long term, and Kiba's been somewhat neutralized. They'll win, but it'll take them a while.

The jonin fights can swing either way, but since the konoha ninja are more used to the Kyuubi's chakra (even if only slightly), and Zabuza's likely to get distracted by Haku almost dying, the Leaf ninja are probably going to win.

Uh... let's see... what else... yeah, I got nothing. If anyone has any information that I screwed up here, feel free to ping it to me. I haven't gotten any flames yet, so that's somewhat odd. And yeah. That's it.

Also, anyone have any ideas for where Harry appears? Right now I'm thinking it's during the invasion arc, when Sarutobi summons the shinigami and gets Harry instead, but I also kind of want to have him doing a lot of wandering on his own.


	7. Returns

Disclaimed

_The veil, Harry mused, felt almost exactly like his cloak. How oddly appropriate. He vaguely wondered if they were the same material before the world solidified in front of him. He was, he quickly realized, standing in some sort of palace. He'd apparently appeared in the middle of a fight._

_The main brunt of the fight were between a group of four people who looked uncomfortably like death eaters, and a much larger group of soldiers with swords and armor, who were barely avoiding the not-death eater's fireballs, while trying to close in and cut them down with their swords._

_Beyond the not-death eaters and the soldiers were another pair of soldiers, these two carrying large metal shields. Beyond them was an old man and a little girl, practically cowering behind a throne. Judging from the way that the not-death eaters kept flinging weapons at the two whenever they got the chance, they were the main target here. Harry felt his lips curling into a smile, and heard his wand begin to sing of it's song of battle of death. He'd always had a saving people thing, and it'd be amusingly cliche to save a princess. Something to tell Sirius about when he found him._

_Harry raised his hand and began to cast._

Sirius awoke to screaming. "-on!" Some random mook was yelling. "Kill it and I'll pay you double! No, triple! No, quadruple! Just kill it!" Well. That wasn't very nice. What was going on anyways? Sirius sat up, looking around. He was still on the bridge. Okay. The Jonin were still fighting their opponents and looked utterly terrified and frantic. Kind of okay. The genin were cowering in the corner. Not okay. Naruto was covered by some boiling red... stuff, and was massacring a large army of thugs. Very not okay. Oh, but hey, did that mean he won? Sirius quickly stood up and staggered over to the others.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino shouted, looking surprised and overjoyed. "You're alive! We all thought you were dead!"

"No, I just fell unconscious. Again. Despite waking up only a couple hours ago." Sirius grumbled under his breath a little bit more, then glanced at Ino. "What's going on?"

"What's- what do you _think's_ going on? Naruto's covered in some strange red chakra, and trying to kill all of Gato's men!" She said hysterically.

"Best use of it's power, I guess." Sirius said absently, "Any idea where Gato is?"

"Be- no, I don't care. Gato's the short stupid looking guy over near the back." She finally said.

"You know what the red chakra is." Shino said suddenly. "Why? Because you are not concerned."

"I've got a guess." Sirius admitted. "I'll get back to on that after I find out if seeing the S-rank secret is enough to let you know the rest. In the meantime..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a kunai, then launched a blasting curse directly at Gato. It was a good thing, Sirius mused, that none of the thugs noticed before it hit, because it would have been a lot less dramatic.

Naruto froze in the middle of ripping someone's throat out with his bare hands, turning to look at Sirius. The bubbling red mist around him faded, and he dropped the man, who lay on the ground, presumably gasping.

Suddenly, Sirius found himself being glomped by a crying blonde boy. "I thought you were dead!" The boy gasped, "Haku had killed you, and he was apologizing for it but he was trying to kill me, but I felt so mad even though we'd talked in the forest earlier and then there was this red chakra and the stupid fox was all screaming for me to let it out and kill people, and I was so scared, and then I saw everything turning red and-"

"Calm down," Sirius soothed, dropping the kunai and rubbing the blonde's back soothingly. "I'm fine. You're fine. We're all fine. Even our sensei's are fine because GATO'S DEAD AND WON'T BE ABLE TO PAY!" He raised his voice at the last bit, and watched in amusement as the two jonin-fights almost immediately came to a stop. The two missing-nin glanced at each, then the one Kakashi-sensei was fighting turned and fled. The other one made his way to the ice boy's body, placed his hand against his neck, then grabbed the boy and left, his body dissolving into water. Sirius absently wondered if he'd just kawarami'd with a water clone, or if he was using a customized shunshin, but put the thought aside in favor of looking at the others.

"So... you and Naruto, huh?" Kiba suddenly joked. "Are you the-" Sirius hit him with a silencer, and focused his attention on the approaching teachers.

"He's fine. And has things under control. I think he was channeling it's power, not letting it take over." Sirius said in answer to their unasked questions.

"And you?" Kakashi sensei asked, giving that eye-smile of his.

"I'm fine as well." Sirius nodded.

"You did just take some senbon to your pressure points." Kakashi-sensei pointed out.

"I did?" Sirius blinked. "Huh. I didn't know that." He admitted sheepishly.

"Maa." Kakashi-sensei sighed, "Why did you _think_ you fell unconscious?" Sirius shrugged sheepishly.

"I figured it was poison or something." He admitted. "But more importantly, shouldn't we head back now?"

"Hm. We need to talk to the client a bit first, but after that yeah, we'll be heading back." Kakashi-sensei replied cheerfully. "Kure-sensei's team will be coming back with us."

"Got it." Sirius nodded, then glanced at Kakashi-sensei. "Do you mind if I make us a portkey? It'd probably be a good idea to get ourselves checked over as soon as we can."

"A what?" Kurenai-sensei frowned in confusion, giving Kakashi a look. Kakashi shrugged.

"I don't know either." He admitted, giving Sirius an unimpressed look. "Is this a bloodline ability that you forgot to tell me about?"

Sirius shook his head. "Nah, it's like my apparition. I can enchant an object so that after a little bit, it'll transport us all to a chosen destination."

"Range?" Kakashi-sensei immediately demanded.

Sirius thought it over for a few minutes before nodding. "I think I can get us across the elemental nations, as long as I've been there before."

"Disadvantages?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

"They're really uncomfortable." Sirius admitted. "And disorienting. And it tends to make you feel sick. It took me a LOT of practice to be able to be able to land standing up and able to fight. And if you want any sort of range, you have to set up the end point ahead of time. You can try to get through on raw power alone, but it's a lot harder."

"But instantaneous travel over long distances?" Kurenai-sensei asked, "That'd be worth it to quite a few people, Uchiha-kun."

"Well, yeah." Sirius agreed, somewhat confused. "Otherwise I wouldn't have offered it."

"I think she means that you should watch out for kidnapping attempts even more now." Kakashi-sensei said dryly. Sirius coughed, uncomfortable.

"Anyways, on a completely unrelated and ideally distracting note, can we go now? I'm pretty sure Naruto fell asleep on me, and Sakura looks like she's unconscious."

"What do you need for your portkey?" Kakashi asked immediately. Sirius shrugged, carefully pulling out a kunai despite supporting a sleep-standing Naruto, and waved it at a rock.

"We just need to be touching that rock." He said, pointing it out. "It'll activate when there's four people touching it. I'll enchant a second one after that. Also, you'll be appearing in my room, so please don't break anything?"

"Really?" Ino perked up at that. "So we're going to be in your room?"

"You, I'm going with." Sirius said, pointing at her dramatically. "I need to preserve my virtue!"

"... So, my cute little student. I assume that means you want to send Team Kurenai ahead first, and then catch up with them later?" Kakashi asked after a quick perverted giggle.

Sirius nodded, waving at the rock. "Oh, and by the way! Whatever you do, don't let go until you're there." He added quickly. "Letting go before you arrive is considered a very bad idea."

"What happens if we let go?" Kurenai-sensei asked cautiously.

Sirius shrugged. "Hell if I know. No one who's done it survived."

"... So I'm having second thoughts about this portkey thing." Ino said brightly, "Especially if it's as small as that pebble."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Look I can only make it take so much mass. The more mass the portkey has, the less mass it can carry."

"Are you sure it's safe?" She asked, glancing at it cautiously. Sirius rolled his eyes and turned her shirt into a portkey. She yelped as she reappeared about five feet away, and fell. "Sasuke-kun~" She whined.

"Safe enough for you?" Sirius snarked.

She sighed, flopping backwards. "I suppose. Although if I get sick, I'm blaming you. So you'll have to take responsibility and take me out on a date!"

"You didn't get sick that time." Sirius pointed out, "You probably won't get sick at all.

"... Oh no!" She said overdramatically, "My stomach! The queasiness!"

"Maa, as happy as I am-" Kakashi-sensei began, only to be interrupted as Kiba suddenly tackled Sirius.

"Gah! Dog-breath, what are you doing?" Sirius complained. Kiba just gestured wildly. "Talking works a lot better than gesturing." Sirius replied, unimpressed.

Kiba flipped him off, then pointed as his mouth.

"..." Sirius stared at him. Kiba facepalmed.

"I believe he wishes for you to remove whatever jutsu you are using to keep him from speaking." Shino said serenely. "Why? Because he is a very loud person."

"I should probably do that." Sirius agreed.

"Do what?" Naruto grumbled, apparently having woken up when Kiba tackled Sirius.

"Oh, I hit Kiba here with a silencer." Sirius said cheerfully. "I think he likes it."

Kiba growled, which didn't really work what with being silenced.

"You're really trigger-happy with that." Naruto noted absently.

"Am I?" Sirius mused. "I guess I am." He was. It was nice, being able to make people shut up when they got annoying. After his time in Grimauld Place, and his mother's portrait, he felt rather helpless. Well, admittedly that helpless feeling was more about the fact that his godson was gallivanting about and getting himself killed without him, but a bit of that was his inability to make the portrait shut up, he was sure. Eh. "Oh well! Portkey time." He whistled as he grabbed the pebble, then handed it to Kurenai-sensei. "Remember, four people need to be touching it. As long as your finger's even brushing it for the whole journey, you're safe."

"If the problem's mass, maybe you should try using large, low mass objects?" She said, giving it a dubious look. "Perhaps a sheet of paper? That way we could all actually hold on to it."

"Everyone's a critic!" Sirius complained, flicking his kunai. "Fine. I moved the portkey to your shirt." She huffed in a mix of irritation and amusement, but nodded.

The two genin grabbed onto her shirt, Kiba wrapping his left hand around one of Sakura's to make her hold on. Before he grabbed the shirt though, he paused, then pointed to Akamaru. Sirius rolled his eyes. "Fine. Hey, Ino, you mind going instead of Kiba? I need to make another two portkeys so that we have enough mass to bring Akamaru with us."

"So you're giving me permission to explore your house?" She winked, "That sounds like fun!"

"Just don't touch anything." He said, firmly. "I've got some projects half done, and they might be dangerous."

"Fine." She pouted, wrapping Sakura's hand around Kurenai's shirt before grabbing it herself. As they disappeared in the space-warping of the Portkey, Sirius frowned at Kakashi-sensei.

"Hey, Sensei, what happened to Sakura? She was fine when I saw her last." He shrugged.

"Maa, it's chakra exhaustion mixed with some wounding from a couple lucky sword strikes. She needs a medic though, which is why we're moving out now instead of waiting to recover." Kakashi-sensei explained lazily, pulling out his book and shoving his nose in.

"So it's a good thing about the Portkeys then?" Sirius asked.

Kakashi-sensei nodded. "So why did you offer if you didn't know?" He asked almost absently.

"I was worried about Naruto." He admitted freely.

"Wha- hey!" Naruto scowled at him, finally broken out of his pensive silence. "I'm fine! Believe it!"

"I'm still worried about you dobe." Sirius teased. "And I don't believe it."

Naruto just huffed as Kiba snickered at them.

"You should probably remove the silencing jutsu." Kakashi sensei noted, glancing at Kiba, "And make your next... portkey, soon."

Sirius shrugged, dispelling the silencing spell and turning Kakashi's and Kiba's shirts into portkeys. "I'm waiting for them to have probably gotten out of the room." He explained. "I don't want to land on someone. If they fall into something it might be problematic."

"Oh?" Kakashi-sensei shot him an interested look. "What sort of stuff do you have in there?"

"Er, experiments, mainly. Trying to make a flying broomstick, trying to make my anti-explosion bracelet stronger, making a shield bracelet, you know, that sort of thing." Sirius said casually.

"Seals?" Kakashi-sensei gave him his eye smile. "Or is this your bloodline again?"

"My bloodline. Seals can do that sort of stuff?" Sirius gave him a curious look. Kakashi nodded.

"The Uzumaki were famous for the things they did with seals, as were the fourth and his teacher, Jiraya of the Sannin." Naruto looked a bit interested at that, but didn't speak up.

"I thought they just exploded and stored stuff." Sirius confessed, "And I figured the explosions were just prestored."

"Maa." Kakashi-sensei shook his head dramatically. "The folly of youth."

Sirius grumbled under his breath but didn't comment. After a suitable amount of time, he nodded. "They should be out now. The Portkeys are triggered to activate when you say the words, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to now good.'"

"Shouldn't we be swearing that we're _not_ up to no good?" Kiba asked grouchily. Sirius shook his head, fighting back a smile.

"That's not how this sort of thing works." He claimed happily. Kiba shot him a distrustful look, but repeated the password, disappearing in a twist in space. "Okay, Kakashi-sensei, your one activates when Naruto and I grab hold of it." Kakashi-sensei gave him a placid eye smile from behind the book.

"Are you sure you want to?" He asked, "You don't know where it's-" Sirius hit it with a cleaning charm. "... Your bloodline makes you less fun, Suke-kun." He pouted.

Sirius just rolled his eyes, grabbing onto the shirt at the same time as Naruto. A whirl through space later, and they were in his room, standing over a barfing Kiba.

"... In my room?" Sirius complained, "Really? You couldn't make it to the bathroom? You suck, Kiba. Naruto, go make sure the others aren't doing anything dumb. I'll help dog-breath to the porcelin throne."

"But he'll be fine, right?" Naruto asked tiredly. Sirius nodded, tossing a quick charm to repel anything unsavory on his clothes, and a second one to clean up the ground before helping Kiba up.

"Yeah, it's probably just the disorientation. His senses are a lot more sensitive than ours so it hit him harder." Sirius explained.

"Hey... so what about Haruno-chan?" Naruto asked thoughtfully, "If she's already hurt..."

"She... should be fine." Sirius finally decided. "And if she's not then it's a good thing we're dragging her to a medic anyways." Naruto looked slightly comforted as he went to make the others feel less like intruders and Sirius went to get Kiba to a bathroom so he could toss his cookies in peace.

"That's not a very nice way of looking at it, Suke-kun." Kakashi-sensei said as Sirius returned. Sirius shot him an annoyed glare, only to have it blocked by his teacher's smut.

"Hey, better to find out if there's problems when there's a medic nearby instead of when there isn't." Sirius said defensively. "Actually, we should probably all swing by the medic, just in case."

"Oh, so you're volunteering for a full examination?" Kakashi-sensei asked from behind his book, "So kind of you. Well, off we go, my cute little students!"

"... You need to go through one too." Sirius pointed out.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Kakashi-sensei asked absently, "I think I hear Gai challenging me. I should probably go do that."

"I will stun you and drag you there myself." Sirius threatened. "And then I'll vanish your mask. And take pictures. And post them all over the town."

"Should you really be threatening your teacher like that?" Kakashi cocked his head, giving Sirius an amused look as he put his book away.

"Yes." Sirius nodded, "When you're dragging someone to a medic, you're allowed to do whatever you want as long as they're not too much more injured."

"Mah, I suppose that's true. But do you really think you'd be able-" Sirius snapped his fingers, activating the array of runes in the room and freezing everyone other than himself and Naruto in place.

"Don't follow a wizard into his own house." Sirius quoted, "For a wizard's home is his castle, and defended against all."

"... I thought you were a Shinobi." Kakashi-sensei said, his voice deceptively mild. "Is there something you'd like to explain?"

"... I've decided to call my bloodline wizardry." Sirius explained smoothly, "In order to differentiate it from the Sharingan."

"Wizardry." His teacher's forced mildness melted into his more usual amusement. "Really?"

"It does enough." Sirius pointed out. "I mean what else would I call it?"

"Doesn't wizardry imply the studying of texts and summoning of spirits?" Kakashi-sensi asked dryly. Sirius shrugged.

"Not my problem. What is my problem though..." He hit his teacher with a stunner, before the runes could wear off. That was the problem with those ones. They took almost a week to set up, could only be used once per day, and only lasted for about five minutes. And due to the finicky nature of them, they couldn't even be moved. Remus had been much better with runes, but even he took a few days to set one up. At least his had recharged in an hour though. Sirius absently wondered if he'd ever bothered to turn it into a combat skill. He doubted it. It was simply easier to do things with a wand, and in a fight between two wizards, speed didn't matter as much as it did in this world.

He hit his unconscious teacher with a levicorpus, then dragged him into the main room where everyone seemed to have gathered, then gave out a cheerful yell. "Who wants to go see a medic? Anyone that says 'not me' gets to get stunned and dragged!"

"That probably would be a good idea." Kurenai sensei decided, looking amused at the sight. "I assume your own teacher was one of the ones you had to restrain?"

"Yup." Sirius grinned.

"How'd you do that?" She asked, "He's one of the better jonin."

"Wait, he is?" Naruto glanced up from his cup of coffee in surprise. "But he's a terrible teacher. He just orders us to run laps or do push ups or drills or whatever and goes and reads his pervy book."

"Actually, seeing as out of you three two of you are terrible in any sort of physical activity, and the third's fighting style looks like someone tried to teach a brawler a few basic taijutsu moves, that's probably a good idea for now." She commented. Sirius and Ino huffed, while Naruto looked flat out indignant.

"What? But the Teme helped me with my taijutsu, and I always won the fights at the academy!" Naruto complained.

"That's because you have immense natural endurance and strength." Kurenai sensei pointed out. "The basics that Uchiha taught you were capable of being leveraged along with that into a proper offense and defense. Even with that, it's not as good as the actual academy style, which no one in your generation seems to know very well." She sounded extremely annoyed about that. "Presumably because the traitor had such a hand in your teaching. Did you know they were considering putting all of you back into remedial classes?"

Sirius blinked in shock. He hadn't known it was that bad. He'd helped Naruto by giving him advice on the muggle style that he'd learned back when he was ali- a wizard, but he'd never really been interested in Taijutsu. A bit of it was because of his natural ability as a wizard, but most of it was because the clan had placed such an emphasis on the fact that when he got his Sharingan, he could just steal whatever moves he needed, so he just had to get his body to the level where any move was usable. But Kurenai sensei was still speaking.

"The reason we had so many clan kids pass this time is apparently because they were at least able to fall back on their clan styles during the fights. Even Uchiha-kun's clan style was a good thing to fall back on, despite it's reliance on the Sharingan." She explained.

"... I have a clan style?" Sirius stared at her in confusion.

"You didn't know?" She sighed. "Well, whatever that basic taijutsu you taught Uzumaki-kun is, it's better than the twisted academy style that was being taught."

"Huh. Learn something new every day." Sirius commented.

"Shouldn't you have learned most of this from Gai-sensei?" Ino asked curiously. Sirius shrugged.

"I mainly just work with them on physical conditioning." He admitted, "Specifically speed. Gai-sensei's going to start me on weights in a bit. My bloodline means that actual hand to hand combat is suboptimal to standing back and spamming jutsus."

"I noticed." She grumbled, "Do you even use non-bloodline abilities?" Sirius blinked, thinking it over.

"Would you believe that I can't remember?" He finally admitted. That was actually somewhat comforting. Even if he was in a brand new world, his old powers hadn't left him, and weren't useless. They weren't optimal of course, since he wasn't really a master of anything, but all he had to do was work at it, and he'd get there eventually, he was sure.

"In the meantime, if everyone's done drinking Uchiha-kun's coffee?" Kurenai sensei asked, sounding amused. Everyone nodded, not seeming even slightly ashamed of having broken into his stash. Though to be fair, Naruto had probably offered them some, and had a standing invitation to 'get whatever the hell you want and let me sleep. Oh, and if you're making coffee, save some for me.' Speaking of which...

"Hey, Naruto, did you save me a cup?" Sirius demanded. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, it's on top of your static rune."

"Statis." Sirius corrected absently, going and getting his coffee. He gulped it down quickly, as he temporarily disarmed the wards to let the others get out of the house. "Okay, wards are down. We can leave now. Well, you guys can. Naruto and I always could, we're keyed in."

"Are these the same wards that Kakashi has been complaining about?" Kurenai sensei asked as she rose smoothly from her seat.

"Huh? Er, I dunno. If he was trying to break it and surprise me or something, probably." Sirius admitted. "I'm a bit paranoid about-" _intruders. attackers. Death Eaters. Voldemort. My family. Everyone._ "my privacy. And, er, with Itachi out there..." She nodded sympathetically.

"Of course." She murmured as she leaned over the couch to pick up Sakura and when did she get there?

"Lemme just go get Kiba." Sirius said, grimacing. "Actually, considering how sick he is, we might want to just set up a Portkey beacon at the hospital and then portkey Kiba there."

"You can set up a beacon at the hospital?" Kurenai demanded. Sirius nodded. "Do so immediately. And portkeys... can they be set to trigger with a command word?"

"Yes...?" Sirius answered cautiously.

"When you're carrying them, can you activate them from elsewhere?" She demanded again, "For example, if you made one here, could I take it to Wind Country and activate it there?"

"Yes...?" Sirius repeated, still cautious.

"How many can you make?" She demanded, her eyes looking almost frantic.

"As many as I need to. They only take a few seconds each." He said. She gave him a triumphant smile.

"So you could, for example, set up a beacon at the hospital, then give each team a portkey, so if someone was injured they could activate it and return to the hospital?"

"They'd only work once each." Sirius pointed out, "I'd have to make new ones after that. And there's a lot of teams. Making them is still really tiring, even if I'm strong enough to make quite a few. And we still don't know if there's any side effects. And-"

"Work it out with the Hokage." Kurenai sensei cut him off. "Even having a somewhat unreliable way of getting medical attention that leaves you sick is better than having no way of getting medical attention when someone just cut your stomach open. Add in the fact that this makes a very convenient escape route if, say, built into a ring... The only problem is that we need to take entire teams at once, and if one of them has an animal companion..."

"Also, longer distances take exponentially more energy." Sirius pointed out. "Short distances like wave are fine, but once we get to jumping across the elemental nations, making one will probably wipe me out for about a week. I can try to do it slowly and with a liberal use of runes, but that still takes me about a week... although once I've crafted the runes recharging it manually would probably only take about an hour, and I bet I could set it to automatically recharge..." He trailed off thoughtfully. No one had ever really bothered doing anything fancy with portkeys back in Britain. You mainly used them to get from one place to another, one time, and usually outside of a fight, and that really said everything to be said about them. During a fight, the first thing anyone did was toss anti apparition and anti-portkey jinxes, so people really only made a token attempt at escaping with those. "I bet I can do this. Yeah, hold on, lemme just scribble some notes..." He disappeared into his room before she was able to speak.

AN: So! Notes on Portkeys! In light of how utterly broken teleporting as a whole is, and the fact that people use apparition at all when the portkey spell seems to be pathetically easy, I'd say that Portkeys can only take people to specially prepared "beacon" locations unless you can actually see the final destination. Add in how uncomfortable it is, and they're the magical version of a plane making stops as opposed to apparition's car.

Other notes... I've got nothing. XD


	8. Why Showing Off is a Bad Idea

Disclaimed

Chapter 8: Why Showing Off is a Bad Idea

"_Why are you here, shinigami-sama?" The Miko asked with half-assed politeness, "This is not your world."_

"_I'm looking for someone from my own world." Harry replied, taking a sip of tea. It was good tea. He missed Earl Gray, but this... whatever it was, was good enough. "He doesn't belong here."_

"_Why do you believe he is here?" She demanded, furrowing her brow._

"_He fell through the Veil." Harry said flatly, "The same artifact I used to arrive here." And because the Resurrection Stone was willing to try to bring back his shade when he was at home, but didn't even twitch, here. Of course, that didn't mean he was easy to find. As far as point me was concerned, he didn't exist._

"_Was he also shinigami?" The Miko arched an eyebrow at him. Harry shook his head, both to get himself on track and to answer her question._

"_No. He wasn't a... death god." He said with a bit of distaste. "But he was a mage."_

"_But he was not divine?" She repeated. He shook his head again. _

"_If he fell through a shinigami's portal, he died and was reborn." She replied. "He is of our world now. You have no claim to him."_

"_Would he remember?" Harry demanded. "His last life, I mean?"_

_She shrugged. "He may." She said indifferently._

"_Would he retain his magic?" Harry demanded again._

"_Is Magic a part of his soul?" She asked. Harry thought it over for a moment, then nodded. "Then he will retain it." She said, her voice certain. "But nevertheless, he is no longer yours. Leave him."_

"_He's my godfather!" Harry snapped, "I'm not going to abandon him!"_

"_... If he is an ancestor, it is your right to seek him." She said stiffly. "I will not hinder you. If he is a lost spirit, the Two Tailed Cat will likely be capable of finding him. It is said to have a connection to death. You may find it's container in the land of lightning."_

"You are being removed from active, out-of-village duties." The Hokage repeated. Sirius gave him a glare.

"I heard you the first time," He snarled. "My 'What' was more of an invitation to elaborate on your reasons. Please. Hokage-sama." He quickly tacked on the honorifics. Luckily, the hokage didn't seem inclined to punish him for his insolence. Or maybe he figured that his news was punishment enough.

"You have two highly valuable bloodlines." The Hokage said with a sigh. "One of which has immense logistical value, the other of which is from one of the founding clans of konoha. Even one resulted in our putting you on the team as one of our best jonin. Simply put, we cannot _afford_ to lose you at this point. Add in your tendency to act somewhat rashly, and the council of clans as well as the civilian council have decided to restrict you to the village until we're sure that we will not lose your bloodline."

"... To be fair, I'm not sure I actually have the sharingan." Sirius offered.

"You used it on the bridge." The Hokage sounded amused.

"... Normally I'd be really happy about that." Sirius frowned, "But you're kind of using it as an excuse to keep me stuck in here."

"It is rather important." The Hokage said mildly, "The amount of lives that can be saved with access to those portkeys of yours are staggering."

"Yeah, I get it." Sirius said glumly. The last time he'd rushed out rashly, he'd taken a stunner to the chest and fallen through the Veil. "It's just... I'm not a house person. And besides!" He added, suddenly inspired, "I need to practice! You know, to protect myself from Itachi."

"Itachi will not be a problem." The Hokage said smoothly, "You will be well protected."

"I'd feel better if I could protect myself as well." Sirius pointed out. "I mean, even if you put ANBU guards on me, he's got the Tsukyomi."

"It will not be a problem." Danzo said impatiently. Sirius glared at him.

"Who are you, anyways?" He asked.

"Show some respect, brat." The one-eyed man growled.

"Danzo is an old friend of mine." The Hokage said with a frown, "And the head of the former ROOT division of the ANBU."

Sirius frowned. This felt... staged. There was something going on that he was missing. And it was very important.

"Why are you so sure that Itachi's not a problem?" He asked suspiciously.

"We will place ANBU guards around you at all times." The Hokage promised.

"... Did you know, the first thing after Itachi left, I snooped around in the house a bit?" Sirius asked, apparently on a tangent. "His timing was really convenient, don't you think? I mean, massacring the Uchiha literally days before they decided to rebel?"

"What makes you think they were planning on rebelling, boy?" Danzo asked cautiously.

Sirius sneered at him. "Please, I was one of the prodigy sons of the clan head, and they were asking so fishy even Naruto would have suspected them. And then the maps of the patrols were centered around government centers, or at least, what I assume were government centers since there were a couple unmarked points. But anyways, they patrolled the government centers, not the areas that actually had a lot of crime."

"And what are you planning on doing with this knowledge?" Danzo demanded.

"I was planning on asking Itachi why he left." Sirius replied. "Putting down a rebellion should have ended with him being honored, not being marked a traitor, even if he did get... overzealous. _I _put together that there was a rebellion, he must have as well. You lot almost definitely did. The only reason he became missing-nin was because he ran away, and if he actually cared, the confusion of the rebellion would be a better time. Even with his 'test my capacity' excuse, the attempted uprising would have been a much better time. Ever since I found that, I've been wondering... what was the real reason? What's the real story? What. Am. I. Missing? But you two know the answers I'm looking for, don't you?"

"Yes, we do." The Hokage said, sighing.

"Hiruzen!" Danzo sounded almost annoyed.

"He is obviously loyal." The Hokage snapped back, then gave Sirius a softer look. "The reason Itachi left was to protect the reputation of the Hidden Village. We could not admit that the Uchiha were planning on rebelling. They already had enough suspicion on them for the Kyuubi attack. Itachi began a deep cover mission to find who actually sent the Kyuubi, and it was decided that massacring a clan that was already taking treasonous actions would be the best cover for him."

"And no one could have told me this?" He was sure his voice sounded annoyed.

"We didn't trust you." Danzo snapped, "We had no reason to. They only reason you lived at all is because Itachi begged for your life."

"Wait, why'd you kill the other kids?" Sirius asked, sidetracked. "And the non-combatants? I mean, most of them weren't jerks, just my father and the Elders."

"Someone else interfered in the operation." The Hokage admitted. "A man calling himself Uchiha Madara. He claimed to be responsible for the second kyuubi attack."

"... No, I don't care enough to know." Sirius finally admitted. "Fine. Itachi's even more innocent than I thought. I _knew_ there was something off about his whole speech. I guess the reason he was encouraging me to get the Mangekyo was to help me protect myself?"

"It would be a reasonable guess." Danzo admitted. Sirius nodded, humming thoughtfully.

"Well, now that we've dealt with that, what other dangers are you expecting?" He finally asked.

"You're aware of Naruto's status as a Jinchuuriki?" The Hokage confirmed. At Sirius's nod, he continued. "There is an organization known as the Akatsuki which was founded with the goal of gathering all the tailed beasts. Itachi has been serving as our spy, and our spymaster is keeping an eye on it with other sources as well. Luckily there seems to be someone who has begun skirmishing with them, but they are an organization of ten S-Rank missing nin, so they remain extremely dangerous."

"Eggs in one basket problem, huh?" Sirius grumbled. "Fine. I'm sure you know best. But can I start leaving town again when I've proven myself to _not_ be helpless?"

"Very well." The Hokage nodded. "I'll make a deal with y The Chunnin exams are in our village this year. If Kakashi nominates you _and_ you get promoted, then you will be allowed to continue normal operations. And either way, while in the village, you will be assigned a constant D-Rank mission to replicate your portkeys using seals or just making portkeys."

"I can accept that." Sirius grinned. "Thanks for the opportunity. I'm not being prevented from training, right?"

"Correct." The Hokage replied. "Just do not leave the Hidden Leaf."

Later

"So, my cute little students," Kakashi-sensei announced as his students panted in exhaustion from his 'warm ups'. "Have some forms, fill them out, and get ready for the chunin exams!"

"Eh?" Naruto gave him a squinty look.

"The chunin exams are in town. You've been nominated. They start in a couple weeks, but diplobrats from other countries should be arriving soon."

"... You mean diplomats?" Ino asked doubtfully.

"I always say what I mean." Kakashi-sensei replied, giving them an eye smile. "Anyways, we're going to be taking a little break to let you all recover for the exams. The break starts the day before the exams. Until then, I'll be teaching you a new jutsu!"

"You will?" Sirius stared at him in surprise.

"You'll need it." Kakashi-sensei said cheerfully, "The Body Flicker technique will let us do even more interesting training!"

"... Of course it will." Sirius said dryly.

"Now here's the seals..." Kakashi demonstrated them, "And here's how it works!" He body flickered from one place to another. Sirius frowned.

"It's not teleportation." Naruto suddenly announced. "I can feel the wind being knocked around."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how that phrase should go." Sirius muttered to himself as he thought it over. "But he's got a point. You're just using a really efficient version of that Chakra launch technique that Naruto and I use, aren't you?"

"No, actually." Kakashi shook his head. "The technique uses chakra to increase your raw speed. It's a basic body enhancement technique."

"... Can I use that to increase my reflexes?" Sirius immediately asked. He wasn't very concerned about moving quickly, he had apparition and portkeys for that, and stressing your core recovered faster than chakra did. He was, however, concerned about being able to hit opponents who danced through a fight like butterflies. His spells were useless if they didn't hit, and trying to use the conic version of the stunner that he'd developed had a tendency to strain his magical core. While it wasn't enough to take him out, he'd probably only be able to use it about five or six times in a minute before suffering magical exhaustion. Of course, his wide area jelly legs curse required a lot less effort or energy. Only about as much as a standard stupefy, really, which made it a very good spell for taking out ninja.

"Hm. Probably." Kakashi-sensei admitted, "And with your bloodline, that might even be a better idea. You don't seem to run low on chakra while using your bloodline abilities, so if you use them for offense, and your your chakra just for techniques like this one... well, I think chakra control's going to be your best friend!"

"Uh, why?" Naruto asked, looking completely confused. "What's control gotta do with how much chakra he uses?"

"Chakra control means that you're able to use less chakra each time you use a jutsu." Kakashi-sensei explained, "You for example, overload your jutsus. There's a large amount of wasted energy. Due to your reserves, however, this isn't a problem. Uke-kun and Ino-chan, on the other hand," He paused to gesture at the two. Sirius felt the urge to send a less polite gesture back. Uke-kun? Really? "Don't share your immense reserves." And now he was imagining innuendos. Insulting ones.

"Huh. So if I learned more control, could I make even more shadow clones?" Naruto looked excited at the thought.

"... Don't you already summon a small army each time?" Kakshi-senei asked, looking somewhat sheepish. "But yes."

"What about more _explosive_ shadow clones?" Naruto asked, looking even more excited.

"Uh..." Kakashi-sensei looked like he was regretting this. Good. _Sirius _was regretting it, and he still had his anti-explosions bracelet. Then Kakashi-sensei seemed to realize that he still had to get back at Sirius for stunning him. "Uke-kun can teach you all you want to know about it! Anyways! Shunshin time! Any discussions about it's usefulness or modability can wait until after we learn it!"

Sirius snorted, but focused on learning the shunshin. After a while of trying to get themselves to launch, and then eventually figuring out the smoke screen was there to keep them from looking undignified as they turned and began sprinting in whatever direction they needed to go, they finally had enough of it to use it outside of a combat situation if there was nothing they might impale themselves on nearby.

As the trio made their way towards town, they ran into Team 8.

"Hey, Uke-kun!" Kiba grinned at Sirius. He tossed a silencing spell at Kiba, thanking his habit of having a kunai out to legilimency any random near by civilian.

"Anyways." He said after watching Kiba realize that it'd taken effect, "Hi. I see you're feeling better?" He raised an eyebrow at Sakura, who flinched away. "Uh..."

"I apologize for my teammate." Shino said in his monotone, "She feels nervous around you. Why? Because of the fire jutsu that you used on the bridge." The pink haired girl shot her teammate an irritated look, but didn't actually say anything. Sirius quickly did a mental check to make sure he hadn't accidentally silenced her. Then realizing that he had no idea, he hit her with a dispel, just in case. Silencing people for being annoying was fine. Silencing them by accident was a bad idea.

"I'm an Uchiha. It's what we do." Sirius said with a straight face. It was amazing how well his families lined up. Evil backstabbing bastards with a love of lighting people's houses on fire.

Sakura tapped her throat a couple times, and made a hoarse, scratchy noise. Kiba winced, and gestured to his own throat, then put his hands up in the surrender sign. Unless it meant truce. It probably meant truce. Sirius dispelled him too. "Her throat got hurt." He explained once he could speak again. "Vocal damage from the fight. It'll take a little while to recover apparently. And because of that, our sensei didn't nominate us for the Chunin Exams." He added in a grumble.

"Ours did!" Naruto bragged, then paused. "Speaking of which, what are the chunin exams?"

"Idiot." Ino said flatly. "They're advertisements. The genin compete and show off, and the Hokage makes a big show about who he's going to promote to chunin after the exams, and the people watching use it to decide which country's ninja to hire."

"Speaking of which, we need to pass these." Sirius added in, "Otherwise I'm stuck in the village. Apparently my bloodline's too valuable to let out."

"What? There's no way people care about the sharingan that much." Kiba scoffed.

"Other bloodline. The one that let me make objects that let people teleport." Sirius grimaced. "Presumably since it _can_ be used from home, there's no point risking it on the front lines, as opposed to the sharingan, which can't really be used anywhere but in battle."

"Wow. That's a pain." Ino said sympathetically. "We should get dinner and... distract you." Sakura seemed torn between her normal fuming over her rival stealing time with her crush and her brand new fear over her crush's apparent pyromaniacal tendencies.

"Really?" Sirius gave her an amused look. "That's what you're going with?"

"Give me a break, I'm twelve!" She whined, "And you're old!"

"I'm twelve as well." Sirius pointed out.

"Yeah, but you act old." Naruto piped up. Sirius stared at him in confusion. He'd always heard that he acted young! But then again, he supposed that he had to have some sort of maturity from his age... and of course, young for his mid-thirties was still old for a preteen. Which was actually really damn creepy, and the reason he hadn't been able to hit on people properly. Also, his stupid hair. He really didn't like his new hair.

"I don't act old!" He protested after a second.

"Yuh huh!" The boy argued, "You're all responsible and stuff! You're like a parent! But you're still an awesome one, instead of a boring one." Sirius sighed, ruffling the kid's hair.

"Sure thing." He said dryly.

"See!" Naruto whined, "You do stuff like that!" Sirius frowned. Now that he thought about it, it _was_ more of the sort of thing he did to Harry than the type of thing he did to James. Well. That was disconcerting.

"Er... Okay then." He said. The kids snickered at him, and he pouted.

"Anyways, you promised to tell me about the bridge!" Ino said cheerfully. Sirius froze.

"Bugger. I forgot to ask about that. Hold on a sec." He waved the kunai, mentally calling forth his patronus. "Begin Message: Permission to tell other genin who witnessed Naruto on the bridge the details. Return message with begin and end message respectively. Twenty Five Words. Thanks. End Message. That goes to Hokage, Padfoot." The dog patronus nodded it's large silver head and bounded away.

"What was that?" Ino asked, sounding faint.

"My Patronus." Sirius said fondly. "It's a shield made of good memories."

"What?" Kiba stared at him. "What does that even mean?"

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know. It works."

"Why not just wait a few minutes?" Naruto asked, looking like he was about to laugh.

"Because it's an S-Rank secret." Sirius pointed out. "It's kind of- oh, hey it's back."

"Naruto has permission to tell whomever he wants. Oh and Sasuke? We will be meeting to discuss exactly what other tricks you have been hiding."

Sirius stared at the Patronus. "... I didn't mention you, did I? Damn, we will have to have a talk." He sighed, dismissing it, then turned to the others. "Okay, Naruto's allowed to explain. Let's get Ramen while he does. It'll make it easier."

They made it to the Ramen stand without much trouble, Naruto nervously tapping on the wood.

"It'll be fine." Sirius murmured to him. "Don't worry. Just get it all out."

"But..." He glanced at them, obviously unwilling to finish his sentence.

"They won't." Sirius replied, "Trust them. And if they do, we can prank 'em until they stop."

Naruto cracked a slight smile before nodding.

"Right. So you guys know the Kyuubi right?" He took a deep breath as they nodded. "It's not dead. It's sealed. In my stomach."

"Huh. That's kinda cool." Ino gave his stomach a piercing look, as if she could see the seal. "Is it conscious? Can you talk to it? Oh! That's why I'm not allowed to look into your head, isn't it?"

"That explains why you smell." Kiba said, wrinkling his nose slightly. "I just thought you had a pet that you hugged too much."

Sino simply nodded.

"... That was underwhelming." Sirius commented as Naruto gaped at them.

"That's it?" He finally asked. "That's all you have to say?"

"Is there anything else worth saying?" Kiba wondered. "I mean, sucks for you if it talks to you all the time, and I guess this explains why everyone smells all scared near you, but..." He shrugged. "Not really a big deal."

Naruto gave them a thankful (and somewhat watery) smile, and began to eat. Sirius couldn't help but stare at him fondly. It was like someone had taken James's love for life and bravado, Remus's dreadful shyness and inferiority complex, and Harry's iron will and shoved them all into one person.

AN: Merh. Don't really like how this ended. Blargh. Oh well. Also, this AN is really long, and has nothing else of importance unless you like background information about the nature of the story world.

Anyways, for anyone interested, I imagine magic's limitations being more of a "This is how much you can channel safely" rather than the "You have this much mana, run out and lose" that chakra uses. So in video game/ numerical terms, if you have a 'safe threshold' of 15 using magic, each time you cast a spell, it's safest to be worth less than 15 stress on your magical core. Each second, your magical core resettles by 1 or 2 back towards 0. So say that you cast a spell that causes 3 stress. You have 3 stress on your core. It returns to 0 a couple seconds later. But let's say that you cast a spell needing 20 stress. You've stressed your core beyond safety. Even while you're unstressing, it takes you a good 3-5 seconds before you've dropped below your safe level meaning you can't cast for a little bit without risking more stress again. Hit double your threshold, and you immediately get hit with magical exhaustion, and your stress recovery rate drops drastically.(Obviously these numbers are nowhere near what I'm actually using, since I'm not actually using numbers.)

The actual problem of your stress, however, is that, every second you remain above your safe threshold, you get fatigued as your magical core begins to lose energy that it should be sending to your vitals (And wizards definitely have a constant flow of magic throughout their body keeping them healthy. This is why magical exhaustion is so much of a problem, it takes a long time for your Core to drop back to the threshold and stop fatiguing you.) So if say, each year's spell costs 1 stress per year to use if you're average at it, 3/4 per year if you're good, and 5/4 per year if you're bad, and a wizard usually has around their year+2 as a safe threshold, then a 3rd year can cast 5th year spells and run along the border, 6th year spells and start having problems, and 7th year spells and lots of problems (unless they have a talent in that subject). And so on and so forth. Additionally, spells that you're familiar with cost you less stress to use, since your magic's more used to go along those pathways. So when Sirius casts his "Animate Tree" spell, he stressed his core up to somewhere around just below twice his core's value, then proceeded to cast more spells and stress his core faster than he could recover, increasing his core stress to twice his safe threshold, and knocking him out.

This means a wizard's main limitation is, "How many high power spells can I cast per second?" People with higher recovery rates but lower thresholds will be able to spam mid power spells, but won't be capable of casting high power ones. People with high thresholds but low recovery rates can cast high power spells, but can't really cast _often_.

So Sirius in this story is a high recovery, low threshold type person. Spells like Fiendfyre and Animate Tree are going to knock him to his knees, but he can spam lower level spells like stupefy and protego without any worries. His Conic Stupify is just high enough that repeated castings in a short period will bring him up to "This is a problem" levels, but if he takes time to get a quick break between attacks, his recovery level will make it safer. Of course, during a fight, sitting there recovering isn't safe...

Harry, on the other hand seems like the opposite. He can probably dump a large spell or two, and tank it with his high threshold, but by the end of a fight, he's suffering magical exhaustion and has to sleep it off in the hospital wing (Especially at first. Later on, either his recovery levels get better or he just intersperses high stress spells with minimal stress ones designed to give him time to recover in between the big ones.)

It's been a while since I've read the books, so who knows if this is accurate? (That's a serious question, btw. Anyone spot any major discrepancies?) However, it's a useful balancing factor against the limited resource of chakra.


	9. Sand and Snakes

Disclaimed

Chapter 9

"_Mother wants your blood." The creepy redhead said, staring up at Harry. Harry stared back. _

"_Why?" He asked after a moment._

"_To prove my existence." The kid's voice was flat._

"_... Okay." Harry shrugged, then hit his left hand with a cutting curse. "This enough?"_

"_No. Mother wants all of your blood." The boy declared._

"_I'm pretty sure that would kill me." Harry replied mildly, ignoring the sand that began to rise under him._

"_Yes. And by ending you, I will prove my existence." The boy agreed._

"_Well. Right now's inconvenient. I'm looking for my godfather, you see. Maybe we can do this later?" Harry offered. The boy ignored him. "Ugh. I get the feeling you've got more mental issues than me, kid. Let's see if I can help with that? Legilimens."_

"Okay, Naruto, who did you insult?" Sirius asked tiredly. He'd walked in on Naruto trying to pick a fight with some boy dressed in a black cat suit and some pretty blonde girl with a giant fan. He wasn't sure this happened, but he was pretty sure that it was because Naruto had finally insulted someone with his irreverence. And frankly, he really wasn't in the mood for this.

"I didn't insult anyone!" Naruto whined, "They were bullying Konohomaru!"

"... I have no idea who that is." Sirius said blankly.

"Does it really matter?" Ino wondered, "I mean, shouldn't we be helping him anyways?"

"Well, yes, probably." Sirius admitted, ignoring his own bullying days, "But the way he said that, it was as if he expected me to be stepping in out of righteous indignation that how dare this guy hurt my friend rather than the more generic this guy is a bad guy style indignation."

"He's the old man's grandson!" Naruto interjected, flailing his arms. "Now help me rescue him!"

"... Wait, there's diplomats bullying the hokage's grandson?" Sirius blinked at him.

"Wait, what? He ran into us!" The cat-boy protested, "He's the-?" Sirius hit him with a silencing spell, not really in the mood.

"So diplomatic nightmare aside for right now, how do you even know the kid?" Sirius asked Naruto, a bit of curiosity leaking into his otherwise tired tone.

"Oh, we play ninja all the time!" Naruto said cheerfully.

"... You're already a ninja." The girl pointed out. "Supposedly, anyways. And he's an academy student, right? Why do you even need to play ninja? Also," She turned to Sirius, "What Jutsu did you use on my brother, and can you teach me it?"

"Because it's fun of course!" Naruto declared as Kankuro flailed angrily in the background.

"Bloodline ability." Sirius explained. "So no. Excuse me." He added, biting back a yawn.

"Damn. I bet Gaara'd like it." The girl muttered, then frowned at Sirius. "Why are you so tired anyways?"

"Stayed up all night making portkeys." Sirius replied, yawning again, before his brain caught up to what he'd said. "Er, I mean, classified."

"What's a portkey?" She asked cautiously.

"Also classified." Sirius replied flatly. "Seriously."

"Hey, who's Gaara?" Ino asked. "I mean, since you two are having your own little conversations, I want someone to talk to as well!" Sirius glanced over at where Naruto had managed to find a stick and was poking at the cat-suited boy, who looked five seconds away from pulling a weapon on him.

"Gaara? Oh, he's our brother." The girl replied fondly. "He's the jinchuuriki for the one tailed tanuki. He used to be unstable until Harry-san showed up and helped him out though, so he's not really the go-out-in-public type."

"He is!?" Naruto's shock was understandable. "Can I talk to him? I'm the nine-tails jinchuuriki!"

"Um, I'll ask my dad. Speaking of which, no one introduced themselves yet. I'm Temari. This idiot here is Kankuro. We're here for the chunin exams." She said politely.

"I'm Sasuke." Sirius introduced himself, then suddenly realized something. "Wait, Harry-san?"

"I'm Naruto!" Naruto interrupted him cheerfully.

"I'm Ino." Ino said with a quick bow. "It's nice to meet you."

"You too." Temari bowed back. Sirius hastily bowed as well.

"Great, now about this Ha-" He began, only to get interrupted as another ninja appeared.

"Temari, Kankuro." The ninja was wearing a strange turban-like thing, and had makeup, similar to Kankuro's. "The Kazekage wants you for a dinner with the Hokage."

"Right, we've got to go." Temari said apologetically, then glanced at Sirius. "Uh, how long is your jutsu going to last?"

"Er, what? Oh, right." He hit the cat-boy with a quick finite. "But listen, this Harry, would he happen to be Harry Potter?"

"Hm? Oh I don't know." She shrugged. "Why? Do you know him?"

"I might." Sirius admitted. "I can't be sure until I actually see him or- wait, does he have a scar? On the forehead? Looks like a lightning bolt?"

"Hm. I guess you could describe it that way." Temari said thoughtfully. "Anyways, we really need to go, we'll chat with you guys soon, okay? I mean, we can probably talk for a bit before the chunin exams. Our villages _are_ allies after all."

"Right." Sirius nodded absently. He was way too tired for this. What the heck was Harry doing here? In this world? He hadn't come after him, had he? No, Remus had been _right there._ Surely he'd been restrained? Remus was the responsible one, after all, he must have! And hey! How come _he_ got to keep his name? And appearance? He'd pout if he wasn't so worried about his godson.

"So... who is this Harry-san?" Ino asked curiously.

"Just someone who I think shares my bloodline." He replied. "Look, I'll talk to you guys in a bit, okay? I really need a nap."

"Okay." Naruto said agreeably. "I need to talk with the old man, anyways."

Sirius nodded to them before apparating back home. He took a deep breath, pulling out a kunai. "Point me, Harry Potter." He whispered. It failed to react. He scowled, concentrating all his energy. "Point me, Harry Potter." It failed to react again. Damnit. He began running through all the tracking spells he knew, even going so far as to pull out a drop of blood for a blood based tracker spell through James (All the purebloods were related, after all, and James was only a couple generations away, really.) None of them worked. He scowled, collapsing onto his couch. "Bugger this." He decided. If this many tracking spells had failed to even indicate that Harry was even alive, then he was either warded up the wazoo, or not there. The second option was much more likely. He blew out a breath in frustration before deciding to just get some rest. He'd try again tomorrow.

The next day came along without any real trouble, except for the fact that there was a creepy snake person standing in his apartment. Sirius took the perfectly reasonable response of trying to stun them. After that failed and Sirius found himself disarmed and tied to a wall by snakes (And who tied people up with snakes?), the man explained that his name was Orochimaru, and he was the snake Sannin. Hm. Wasn't one of them a traitor...? Eh. It probably wasn't this one. What would the chances of _that_ be? Especially in the middle of Konoha.

"Okay, fine." Sirius grumbled, steadfastly ignoring the hissing serpents. "So what's a Konoha elite doing inside my house?"

"I was hoping to offer you an apprenticeship." The Sannin said, a somewhat creepy smile on his face.

"... Sure." Sirius shrugged. "Assuming I fail to make chunin and the team gets disbanded anyways." In that case, going with the creepy snake guy might be his only way out of the town! No was he was going to get himself stuck just because he was afraid of a little risk. He was a Gryffindor, damn it!

"Excelent." The man hissed. "Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll do quite well, and I'd be willing to... help you on your quest, even if you make chunin. Oh, but before I go... I have a little gift for you, Sasuke-kun."

"Do you?" Sirius's fingers twitched with the urge to pull out his kunai. This guy was creepier than Voldemort. His instincts were screaming to stab him, but he was pretty sure that was just his bad experiences talking.

"Oh yes." Orochimaru said agreeably. "It's a seal that gives you a boost in power."

"No thank you." Sirius said immediately. "I don't trust seals."

"... What?" Orochimaru blinked at him in surprise. "I'm sorry, you don't trust _seals?_"

"Nope!" Sirius said cheerfully.

"Not 'you don't trust _me?_" He clarified.

"Nope! Well, that too, but presumably as a ninja of Konoha, you only have the best interests of other Konoha-nin at heart." Sirius explained.

"... Why would you not trust seals?" The snake sannin seemed scandalized at the thought. "They're powerful! They can do anything! Hold explosions, hold things, hold other things!"

"... Okay, beyond the fact that sounds extremely underwhelming-"

"They can hold biiju!" Orochimaru interrupted, "How is that underwhelming?"

"BEYOND that," Sirius continued, shooting him an annoyed look, "There's the fact that, well, I have no idea what they do yet, and therefore don't trust them."

"So you don't use explosive tags? Or weapon scrolls?" Orochimaru demanded.

"I can't exactly afford them anyways." Sirius pointed out, "When it gets to the point that I can, I'll start worrying about it."

"If you learn fuinjutsu, you'll be able to make them yourself." Orochimaru pointed out in return.

"Fuinjutsu, by all accounts, is a long term art that requires quite a bit of commitment." Sirius replied with a shrug, "And I've got more important things to do for right now."

"Ah, like your bloodline studies?" Orochimaru perked up at that. "How are those coming along?"

"... Pretty well." Sirius finally said, then flinched as the snake summoner suddenly pulled out a needle.

"Well, do you mind if I take a blood sample?" He asked, a hint of MAD SCIENCE! (Lily had assured him that yes, it had to be done in all caps) entering his eyes. "Just to take a little look at your DNA, to see if I can perhaps assist you in finding out more about your capabilities."

"Gimme a couple vials, I'll extract the blood myself." Sirius said with a distrustful look at the needle. "And I'll need to drink a blood replenishing potion, so ignore any gagging."

"A what?" Orochimaru's eyes grew even more curious.

"Blood replenishing potion." Sirius repeated, wrinkling his nose slightly. "It's something I can do due to my bloodline." He flinched at the sudden mad laughter of the snake sannin. "Uh..."

"Oh no, it's nothing." Orochimaru assured him as the laughs subsided. "It just happens when I find something that would be very helpful to my research."

"... Right." Sirius agreed cautiously. "I'll... just go fill up the vials. Do you have a- of course you do. Right." He took the vials that Orochimaru was holding out, and leaned them against a couple books. A few kunai waves later, blood was draining from his body directly into a vial.

"Interesting." Orochimaru said thoughtfully, "I suppose this is another bloodline ability?"

"Yup." Sirius agreed faintly. "Hey, you mind getting me the potion? Moving would lead to bad things. Uh, they should be labeled. They're all through that room. Don't touch anything else. The broomstick tends to light things on fire."

Orochimaru nodded and quickly made his way to the room. He returned a few moments later, still looking thoughtful. "How effective is that jutsu during a fight?" He asked curiously.

"Pretty useful." Sirius replied absently, grimacing as he downed the potion. "Hit someone with it, and they'll start draining out. Low strain and quick casting time, so it's usually used with a barrage of other spells so that when your opponent chooses which one to take, they usually let themselves get hit by this one. It won't win you the fight immediately, but as they bleed out, well..."

"Ah, and you would know this from your previous life?" Orochimaru asked casually.

"Ye- wait, what? How the hell did you know about that?" Sirius glared up at the snake Sannin.

"I developed a jutsu that allows me to possess a target." He replied, giving Sirius a very evil grin. "Whatever you did to take control of Sasuke-kun is _very_ similar. I approve."

"... It was an accident." Sirius grumbled, disregarding the rest of the statement. The Yamanka did the same thing after all, so it was probably one of those 'meh, it's useful' things here. "I fell through a drapery, and next thing I know, I'm being reborn as this kid."

"And where is this... drapery?" Orochimaru asked, his eyes glinting with MAD SCIENCE! Either that or greed. Sirius was too sleep deprived and nauseous from his potion to tell.

"Other world. Sorry, potion's a bit... uncomfortable. What I get for using substandard materials."

"I'm guessing that the better materials can only be found in this other world?" Orochimaru asked, disappointment clear on his face.

"Yeah." Sirius agreed. "The formal method is a pretty effective one. An... unlikable git developed a better version, using the same materials. It was more effective, but harder to do. Then my friends and I made a lesser version for, you know, battlefield usage, when you couldn't get to the good stuff, but you really needed a blood replenisher, you know? And that's what I'm using. Less effective though, and minor side effects. And takes longer to make. But works." He yawned, swaying slightly. "'xcuse me. And some of the side effects worked out pretty well. We turned people purple once. Couldn' figure ou' how we did't 'cause just detected vi'amin po'ion." He yawned again and handed the vials to Orochimaru.

"Ah. I suppose I should allow you to sleep. I would enjoy speaking with you again, Saskue-kun." Orochimaru inclined his head. "I believe we could teach each other quite a bit. And who knows? I might even be able to find a way to get you home." He disappeared, leaving Sirius gaping.

"... Bloody wanker." Sirius grumbled after a moment. "Can't just **yawn** leave it like 'at."

He blinked, then forgot the open your eyes part until the next morning came along.

Dawn found him throwing up at the toilet. "You okay in there?" Ino called from his doorway. She'd showed to wake him up, then stayed when he started awake from his chair and made a beeline for the toilet.

"Yeah." He managed to gasp out before his stomach disagreed with him and expelled more bile.

"Uh, any idea what happened?" She asked cautiously. "Like, are you sick and I should get a medic, or is this a bloodline thing? And if it is, should I get a medic anyways?" He'd spent the first few seconds swearing about the potion after all, and he'd already told his friends enough that they were able to make pretty accurate guesses now.

"Bad potion." He managed to get out. "Well. Potion worked. Side effects."

"I see. What does the potion do anyways?" She wondered absently. Siris decided to answer the question, figuring it was better to concentrate on that than his body's rebellion.

"Restore's blood." He gasped out. "Gave blood to science. Exclamation point. Needed it back."

"Why not use a blood increasing pill?" She asked curiously.

"Potion is more effective." Sirius's voice was calmer now that his stomach seemed to have stopped complaining. "The pill uses up some chakra and burns out bone marrow. Potion's side effects are a lot less dangerous, just tired and sick."

"So it's not as good in the short term, but better in the long term." She said thoughtfully. "So what other potions do you know?"

"Not many." Sirius admitted, poking his head out of the bathroom. "Just a few for jokes. And a couple minor medical ones. Working on getting the bone regrowth potion to work, since all my other projects seem to be stalling. Feel free to poke around in the potion room, look through the notes. I'm just gonna lie down for a bit. I'll feel better in about half an hour."

"Wait, bone regrowth potion?" Ino shot him a curious look. He nodded.

"Yeah. I can't get it to work though." He admitted. The problem, he was sure, was that he couldn't actually test it. Back in school, they'd tested out some of their more... daring potions on whatever Slytherins had caught their annoyance that day (Interestingly, never Snape. Snape was, as much as they hated to admit it, much better than them at potions, and would catch it. And not on his crowd, because he'd catch it for them as well.) However since he was lacking both annoying Slytherins and the medical attention required to make sure they didn't die from it, he was sadly deprived of test subjects.

"Seems like it'd be useful." She commented. "Anyways, we were all going to get lunch as a team, over at that one barbeque shop."

"I'll be there in a bit." Sirius called out. She called back an affirmative, and after a bit more worrying, left him.

It was almost exactly half an hour before Sirius decided his stomach wouldn't rebel at the sight of food, and made his way to the restaurant that they were all eating at. It took him an extra ten minutes because he accidentally went to the wrong one first.

"Bastard!" Naruto cried out, pointing at him. "You're here! You feeling better?"

"Not enough to want to eat." Sirius admitted freely as he collapsed into the (leather? Something leathery anyways) seat beside his friend. "On the other hand, I actually got some rest, so that's good."

"Very." Kakashi-sensei agreed, giving them an eye-smile. "Now I won't be able to talk to you three tomorrow, so I should make sure now. Did you all get your forms turned in?" They nodded. "Did you fill out the second sheet that you'll need to bring to the test?" They nodded again. "Good! Now don't do anything I wouldn't do until tomorrow, and we'll be fine! Uke-kun, that means no making your portkeys for now. Uto-kun, no pranks. Ino-chan, no... actually, you're fine." He shot them an eye smile as Ino tried to decide if she should be offended or not. Somehow Kakashi managed to say things in a perfectly offensive way, despite not actually saying anything offensive. Sirius was almost positive he did it just because he liked to annoy people. Of course, he'd thought that about his teacher's lateness as well until he realized that the man spent the whole three hours, standing in front of the memorial, and used to have a friend who was also always three hours late.

The three genin gave sighed affirmatives before breaking into conversation. Naruto and Ino began arguing colors again, while Sirius avoided the conversation by interrogating Kakashi about herbs that he could use for his potions and fending off questions about those potions.

Eventually they split apart, and returned back to their respective homes to unwind. Or well, Sirius was pretty sure the others did. He tried to track down Harry some more, and failed miserably.

Finally, though, it was the first day of the Chunin Exams.

AN: So this is going to sound random, but does anyone know if there's a way (in the Naruto manga) to prevent a genjutsu from taking hold? Not to break one, that's simple (messing with chakra and pain) but to actually prevent one from taking hold. Because it seems to me that the fearsomeness of tsukyomi is that a) it requires only eye contact and that's kinda hard to avoid and b) Once you're in it, you're not getting out until either 3 days later or the user's like "Yeah, we're done." Because I don't think I can recall any situation where _any_ genjutsu fails to settle on someone. The best I can remember is the defender breaking it instantly.

Because if there isn't one, I'm totally retconning my explanation for occlumency to basically be, "Well, the technique got blocked. Because it's not actually unblockable, because no one in Naruto-world seems to actually _block_ techniques, they break them after the fact."

Also! I should probably clarify: I am perfectly aware that things like "Magical Core" is non-canon. However, when I say that, Harry Potter fans who read a lot of fanfiction know _exactly_ what I'm talking about without much trouble, and that's more important to me than being perfectly precise in my wording for no real reason. What I care about is "Are my explanations _actively_ contradicting canon beyond what I intend?" Because frankly, canon explanations are... lacking.

Third note! I have been informed that I was misusing the word Teme. It apparently does not _quite _mean bastard, but apparently something along the lines of "You bastard!" Well. In light of that and the other mistakes I'm likely to make, I've decided to just say screw it and switch over to pure english. We know what all of this stuff means anyways, and if you don't, well, now you do. Although some terms I'll be keeping, such as Jinchuriki, Biju, and Kyuubi, which are more like names/titles rather than mere descriptions. So... it won't be too noticable, but if you do notice it, here's why.

Other stuff: Um... things have happened in this chapter! Gaara isn't insane! Sirius knows about Harry being in this world! Orochimaru's trying to take Sirius as an apprentice! Sirius is a terrible judge of character (or more accurately, ignoring his perfectly accurate judgement.)! Orochimaru knows (or at least, B.S.'ed Sirius into telling him while he was sleep deprived) about Sirius's world-hopping adventures! Also, can anyone else see Orochimaru convincing Sirius to defect without him realizing? Becuase I can. It'd be like, "Hey, we're going on a training trip!" And Sirius would be like, "Okay!" And then when Naruto comes to stop him, Naruto gives this whole, "Don't defect! He just wants your body!" speech and Sirius just gives him a "Wait, what's going on again?" look.

Edit: So I edited this to add in a point that Kolarthecool brought up. Which is that Sirius isn't really reacting enough to Harry being there. So I added a quick scene with him trying to track his godson, getting absolutely no results, and writing it off for now.


	10. Interrogations and Snakes

Disclaimed. Also, no, you didn't miss anything. No worries, Sirius is just as confused as you are.

Chapter 10

_Harry scowled as the ninja spat fireballs at him. He hadn't had much trouble with the previous few, but this one... this one was on a completely different level. The ninja was fast enough that Harry was having trouble tracking the figure, let alone hitting him with a spell. And seeing as he was used to tracking a snitch from across the field, that was pretty damn fast._

_The only thing that consoled him was that Hermione's modified shield charm, _protego corpus, _was more than enough to prevent most of his opponent's attacks from doing anything. Unlike the standard shield charm, this one covered him in a magical armor, making him less dependant on positioning himself properly. Of course, it was inferior in raw power to the standard shield charm, but since he was fond of overpowering his spells and held the Death Stick, it had a tendency to end up somewhere around the same level anyways._

_Harry's mental musing was cut off as the ninja suddenly appeared in front of him, having used that ridiculous not-quite-teleportation technique, the body flicker. He swore, tossing himself backwards to avoid the lightning bolt that the ninja spat, and returned fire with a blasting curse. Frankly, he was hoping for shrapnel at this point. Tch. No luck. _

_He snarled as the ninja finally broke through his armor, the kunai piercing his right arm and nearly removing it along with the death stick. Harry simply sent a wave of raw power out from all over his body to blast his opponent backwards. Dementor's devour him! The ninja had used that annoying replacement technique again, resulting in nothing but a shattered log and another hail of kunai. Harry grabbed the wound with his left hand, channeling a healing spell as he used his right to summon up another shield and block the incoming knives. Then he grinned as he felt the chill that his servants brought forth._

"We know you have it!" The interrogator snarled, slamming his hands onto the table. Sirius gave him a politely blank look.

"Do you mind informing me what exactly I have?" He asked cautiously, "Because I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You've been meeting with him!" The man exclaimed dramatically. "Don't try to deny it, we've been watching your house!"

"I don't even know who you're talking about!" Sirius exclaimed in frustration. He'd been dragged out of bed, dragged into a completely random area. At that point, the man had appeared and started generally accusing him of... something. Sirius still wasn't clear on what, exactly, he was being accused of though. Something about meeting someone at some point last night, and being given a scroll?

"Don't play games with us!" The man hissed. "We're not afraid to hurt you to get what we need!"

"Who are you anyways?" Sirius finally asked, staring at him. The man was wearing what appeared to be a Hunter-nin mask, although it was curiously bare of any village markings.

The man gave him what Sirius was pretty sure was a disdainful look. "Don't try to play games with us, boy. We'll get the truth out of you!"

"Okay, no. That's it. I'm done." Sirius said flatly. His hands were still handcuffed, but even if he was better at wordless magic, that didn't mean he was completely incapable of wandless casting. "Look me in the eyes and say that!" The man was stupid enough to do it, presumably assuming that the chakra containment seals on the chair would stop Sirius from using any techniques. Luckily, he could cheat.

With a hiss of "Legilimense" Sirius leapt into his mind, ramming through the man's pathetic excuse for a mind shield. It was like the locals didn't even develop them! The best they ever did was cast a genjutsu on themselves, which was something like a paper wall in the face of a flamethrower... although then again, it might just be this guy. But according to Ino, most people weren't really used to brute-force mind attacks. If something got them mentally, they tried to break the genjutsu, not prevent it in the first place. Maybe that was why the tsukyomi was so overwhelming, because they were stupid enough to let it actually hit them and tried to break out of it, rather than keeping it from hitting.

After a bit of searching, Sirius pulled out, and hissed a second spell to undo the shackles. As the other exam proctor moved to intercept him, Sirius spat out a banisher, knocking the proctor back. Another spell later, he had a set of kunai. Now that he was able to cast properly, he hit both of them with a pair of stunners.

"That was the most annoying first test ever." He said flatly to the people who were watching from behind the one way mirror. A moment later, it shifted, turning into a perfectly normal window. Behind it was a heavily scarred man. Ibiki, head of the T&I department, Sirius's shiny new stolen memories informed him. And also the overall proctor of the first part Chunin Exams this year.

"When will they wake up?" Ibiki demanded, ignoring his complaint. Sirius rolled his eyes and waved his kunai at the two downed figures. A few moments later, they began to get up. Ibiki nodded. "You pass then. You feel like explaining how you got through the chakra seals?"

Sirius shrugged. "My bloodline doesn't seem to use chakra." He said casually. "Oh, and your Orochimaru impersonator forgot to give me the scroll." He scowled at the man, then frowned as the proctor seemed to freeze up.

"What Orochimaru impersonator?" Ibiki demanded.

"... The one who was supposed to be giving me the scroll for this test?" Sirius asked cautiously. "Wait, was he not part of this?"

"This was a test of loyalty," Ibiki growled, "Why would we be sending a traitor to give you the scrolls?"

"Wait he _is_ the traitor? Merlin!" Sirius shot him a glare, ignoring the rush of blinding _hatred_ at the idea. He loathed traitors, loathed them with a passion that made his former dislike of slytherins seem like affectionate hugging. "Why is there an evil traitor-sannin running around the village breaking into people's houses?"

"Come with me." Ibiki ordered, completely ignoring Sirius's angry question. "We're talking to the Hokage, and you're explaining everything. Anko!" He barked at the furious looking woman beside him. "You- get to come with actually. Go grab Yuki and have her take over."

"Got it boss." The woman snarled before disappearing in a body-flicker.

"Come on brat." The man grumbled, giving the signal to let Sirius out. "We're going to have a chat with the Hokage."

Which was why Sirius found himself explaining (most) of last night to the Hokage (editing out inconvenient facts such as Orochimaru's revelation that he knew a"I bout Sirius's former life, since he wasn't quite ready to tell the Hokage about that). As he finished, the Hokage just sat there, looking at him contemplatively and puffing on his pipe. Sirius coughed awkwardly after a few seconds, and cautiously ventured a question. "So, if you don't mind me asking, Hokage-sama, what exactly happened last night? Or what was supposed to happen?"

"The chunin exams technically began yesterday." He said somberly. "That's why the jonin were so... urgent about the paperwork being completed. Last night, on each team, one person's house was entered by a ninja pretending to be someone higher up in the chain of authority from their village. They were given a scroll, and ordered to hide it immediately, while also being ordered to conceal it from their Jonin, who would act as if nothing was wrong. If the team failed to hide it properly, or their jonin found them out, the team would immediately fail the exam. The person given the scroll was then 'kidnapped' and interrogated. Their teammates were notified by a 'concerned bystander' if they were not there to witness it themselves. The kidnapped simply had to resist the interrogation until their teammates were able to retrieve them. Unfortunately, from what I can guess, Orochimaru likely intercepted the message sender, put her in a genjutsu, and stole her scroll before making his way to your house. As there were a number of 'strange' ninja moving about, it is likely that no one noticed." He grimaced at that point, "Likely because more attention was being paid to the foreign ninja than to our own. Now. You said that he _offered _you his seal?"

Sirius nodded politely. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

"I see. Return to the exam for now. Despite your handicap, your team _did_ manage to pass. We'll heighten security for now. Anko, Jiraya is in the village. Tell him what we just heard and have him re-examine the seal. Tell him to look for anything that would require permission for it to be applied. I doubt my student would leave just because he was refused, especially if he developed his body jumping technique and had a chance for a sharingan along with Sasuke-kun's unique bloodline. Ibiki, you have an exam to proctor. Actually... do what you did to Sasuke-kun here to his teammates. See how they react and give me your opinion on how they would hold out." The two nodded and quickly body-flickered away. The Hokage focused his stare on Sirius again. "Sasuke-kun, be careful. Orochimaru is extremely dangerous. If you encounter him again, either don't let on that you've realized his status as a traitor to the leaf, or flee if at all possible. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Hokage-sama." Sirius nodded quickly, feeling a rush of anger as he was reminded of the man's traitor status. He loathed traitors, loathed _peterhimselfnopeteritwaspeterhowwashetoknow?_ how they took advantage of the trust of others to stab them in the back. It was why he had refused Slytherin, why he'd managed to befriend Prongs, why he'd managed to figure out Moony, because he refused to let secrets lie, refused to let something hide in the shadows when it should be out in the sun.

And maybe it was why he'd been so hurt by Itachi's false betrayal. Because even if he didn't like his family, the idea of just up and slaughtering them was inconceivable. Even _Death Eaters_ were better than that. And what was worse, what hurt so much was that Itachi hadn't brought him. But he was treading on old grounds, remembering old woulds, and that had nothing to do with this.

He took a deep breath, calming himself down as he bowed at the Hokage and left. The rest of the day passed in a sort of brooding silence as Sirius generally avoided everyone in order to muse on his lives. This world was different, but somehow the same. Betrayal and hatred were everywhere, rivalries blew into violence, and the shadow of war hung over everyone, just waiting to be reborn from the temporary peace.

Or was it? Maybe he was just imagining things. Maybe it was just his dark thoughts feeding the atmosphere, turning it gloomier than it really was. Oh who was he kidding? There was something wrong. Orochimaru had wandered into his apartment and offered him an apprentice. Itachi wasn't actually evil, but had slaughtered the clan for plotting a rebellion (although that technically wasn't new). And the air felt _wrong._ He wasn't sure how it did, but it did. He knew the pattern. Something bad was coming. He knew it. In the meantime though...

Hm. It looked like there was something interesting going on back in town, if those explosions meant anything. Of course, he should probably do the smart thing and move away from it, but he was a gryffindor, damn it! He quickly cast his trio of sneaking spells on himself, and threw himself through not-space to reappear at his target with a loud crack (which was, obviously, muffled by his silencing spell.) He glanced down from the rooftop he'd just appeared atop of, ignoring the ANBU who seemed to be attempting to find him but couldn't concentrate properly due to his notice-me-not and disillusionment combination. And then suddenly he could, because the shock of the scene in front of him made him lose control of his spells.

The frekkin snake sannin was fighting the Hokage. Or more accurately, the Hokage was trying to kill the man, who was dodging and apparently trying to speak.

"I'd like to rejoin the leaf!" Orochimaru finally managed to get out a few seconds after Sirius arrived. The Hokage almost froze in shock (though being a ninja, he did manage to pull himself back into a proper defensive position first).

"What?" The Hokage asked, looking completely shocked. Sirius understood how he felt, it was like Voldemort showing up and asking to get a job at Hogwarts.

"I'd like to rejoin the leaf." Orochimaru repeated, sounding far too cheerful for someone with a Kage trying to kill him.

"You- we kicked you out for a reason!" The Hokage sputtered.

"You should stop living in the past Sensei." Orochimaru said disapprovingly, "It's rather antithetical to scientific progress."

"Hold still." The Hokage snarled, "I need to shove a kunai through your chest." He launched back into the attack. This time though, Orochimaru had evidently learned enough from the previous fight, because he was able to keep talking while dodging.

"Well, at least you're in the present now." Orochimaru mused.

"Why do you want to rejoin anyways?" Sarutobi demanded. "I was under the impression that you had no respect for your fellow villagers?"

"Oh, I don't." Orochimaru admitted freely. "But I want to experiment on Sasuke-kun, and he doesn't seem like the type of person to be willing to leave. Seeing as he'd also be far too hard to kidnap, this seems like the best way to get permission from him."

"Why would we let you back in?" The Hokage demanded. "Especially once I've heard that!"

"Well, what if I promised to only experiment on volunteers?" Orochimaru offered, "Which, by the way, reminds me! I'm sorry I ever doubted you! By asking for volunteers, I get so many more experimental subjects with so much less effort! You know Sensei, if you'd told me that instead of lecturing me about things like 'human decency' and 'the will of fire' and 'abominations against nature' we wouldn't have had this problem in the first place."

"That's not what's important here!" The Hokage roared as he sent a wave of fire towards his former student, who dodged it with as little concern as he'd had dodging the other attacks (that is, a mild amount, but not enough to stop him from talking).

"I'm willing to claim I had a change of heart, if it makes this more palatable for your propaganda." Orochimaru said cheerfully.

"You killed hundreds of leaf ninja in our experiments!" The man snarled.

"And just think," Orochimaru said, looking honestly regretful for a few seconds, "If I'd been more open and took volunteers, I could have asked Tsunade to help me with it, and I'd probably have had far less casualties. Speaking of which, I don't suppose she returned at any point? I haven't been able to have spies since you started randomly walking your Yamanka through everyone's minds, so I'm not quite sure, and I need her help curing one of my servants." Sirius burst out into embarrassed coughs as he realized that Orochimaru was talking about his legilimency probes. "No? Are you sure? If it makes you feel any better, it's not like I want to be Hokage any more. You can have Minato's kid take over, I don't mind."

"Wait, what?" Sarutobi paused in his attempts to murder his former student as he got sidetracked by the comment. "Why not?"

"The only reason I wanted to be Hokage was to access the library." Orochimaru explained, "But now that I've actually been a Kage... well, frankly, the paperwork isn't worth it. I haven't been able to personally watch over an experiment in years. It took me quite a bit of effort to arrange for enough free time to come here for this, and I'm _still_ going to have a massive backlog when I get back. And even then, I brought a lot of it with me."

"So you want to rejoin the village because you want to experiment on Sasuke-kun, and don't want to deal with paperwork." The hokage asked, his eyes twitching.

"And because asking for volunteers results in a more than adequate supply of test subjects, yes." Orochimaru agreed.

"And why, exactly should I even consider taking you back?" The older ninja growled. "What are you offering the village that would erase your sins?"

"I've perfected my cursed seals." Orochimaru offered, "My success rate is about 80%, and even then, the targets usually don't die. I think the fatality rate is about 3.5% now. If I get Tsunade to help me, I bet I can get it even lower. I also have the resources of the Hidden Sound that we could easily add to the Hidden Leaf's. I'm sure a lot of them would appreciate being in an actual Ninja Village. Obviously, I'm keeping the labs under my direct control though. I've also developed a number of new jutsus, so that should be useful. And of course, I've developed additional medical knowledge that would be useful for helping others in the village."

"... You know, I always liked to pretend that he'd see the light and come back," Jiraya commented. Sirius yelped in surprise, but quickly covered it up. When had _he_ arrived? "But I never really imagined it'd be like this."

"It never does turn out how we imagine it." Orochimaru agreed. "Being a Kage seemed like it would be a lot less boring than it really is."

"No." The Hokage finally said, "I cannot forgive you for your crimes. And I will do what I was too weak to do before. Enma!" He summoned his staff.

"Pity." Orochimaru sighed. "Oh well. It seems like we'll have to go with Plan B."

Sirius started as he felt someone grab him from behind, then shove a rag in his face. "Wha- get off him you bas-" He heard Naruto begin before everything went black. (When did Naruto get there? He couldn't concentrate...)

_Sirius dreamt of magic and whispers on the edge of his reality. He dreamt of a veil that fluttered without wind, that spoke without words. He dreamt of dust and ash, of his home in flames. He saw his godson raising his friends, fighting against Voldemort's forces. He saw Dumbledore die ask Snape killed him, like everyone always knew he would._

_Sirius wondered why, even then, Albus had seemed to trust him. Why though Harry had been found right every time, no one believed his words and allowed Malfoy to bring the death eaters back into his hallowed school, the school that had been more a home to him than anywhere but with Marauders. _

_And Sirius saw the good and the bad. He saw Remus and little Nymphadora get together, knew when they had their child, heard when they proclaimed Harry the Godfather. He saw Voldemort's rise, standing over a Britain conquered in all but name. He saw Harry calling for those he had loved, and burned to appear, but he couldn't for he was no longer head, but his friends told his godson anyways. And then he saw Harry die, sacrificing himself to protect everyone he knew, calling upon magics older than time and bound by blood._

_He nearly cried out then, but found he couldn't not in this dream. And he was forced to watch as Hagrid brought Harry before his friends, and Voldemort proclaimed himself the victor. And he watched as Harry rose, not dead (Because, he realized, Harry held the cloak, which would hide him from even death, because just being a Horcrux would not have been enough to save him from the killing curse that destroyed every soul within your body.)_

_He watched as Harry claimed the Elder Wand, and saw the spirits of the dead bowing to him. He wondered why he saw the others, Lily, James, Remus, little Nymphie, and Albus, and wondered why he did not see himself. Wasn't he dead? Or did the Veil do something, change something? It likely did, he admitted to himself. After all, wasn't that why he was here, in this strange land, this strange world?_

_He watched as Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, his Godson, won the war, and began to rebuild. And he watched as the boy began to change, began to ascend from a mere mortal to the Master of Death. His terror rose as the boy made the Dementors kneel, and watched in fear as the boy obsessed over the Veil, casting aside his former life (but then again, he was the Master of Death now, and what was life to one such as him?). And nothing could compare to the absolute horror that Sirius felt when Harry walked through it._

AN: I blame Orochimaru for this whole chapter. Seriously. This whole chapter is all Orochimaru's fault. Somehow, my version of him seems to make everything humorous while he's there.


	11. Mistakes

Disclaimed

Chapter 11

"_You're the Two-Tailed-Cat." Harry confirmed._

"_I'm the host of the two tailed cat." The woman cautiously confirmed._

"_Right. Listen, I need to talk to it." Harry explained, "So if you'd just let it out for a few seconds...?"_

"_You need to talk to a bijuu." She said flatly. "Are you insane?"_

"_Probably." Harry admitted. "But it's more that I'm looking for someone who's been reincarnated, and I was told that it'd know where he is."_

"_Fine." She sighed, calling forth the power of the bijuu. _

"_I need to find Sirius Black." Harry told it. It shrugged._

"_I have no idea who that is." It said bluntly. "Now, shinigami-san, please go away?"_

"_Ugh. Fine." Harry scowled at the useless beast before turning and apparating back to the village hidden in the stones._

It was dark. Very, ridiculously dark. It wasn't even midnight levels of dark, because that at least had starlight. It was "Locked in a dungeon without a torch and wearing a blindfold" levels of dark. Judging from the clanking of chains whenever he tried to move, the fact that he appeared to be hanging off a wall by his arms, and the feel of fabric against his closed eyelids, that was _exactly_ what was happening.

Of course, Sirius wasn't a wizard for nothing. A couple wandless opening charms later, he fell off the wall... about thirty feet. It would have been lethal if he hadn't managed to scream out a cushioning charm.

"I was _wondering_ what you were going to do about the fall!" A delighted voice hissed from... somewhere. "A cushion of your... magic, correct? Sufficient to slow your fall to no longer harmful velocities? As for the chains... Hm. Not really sure what you did there, those weren't exactly built to be opened after they were put on. It looks like you somehow managed to undo the stress caused by forcing them shut." Sirius ripped the blindfold off, looking around for the source of the voice. "Shouldn't you have done that earlier?" Orochimaru asked from his position on the overhang, sounding honestly curious. "I was assuming that you were able to see through it, but if you're ripping it off, maybe you couldn't? Or is there an energy drain from keeping your abilities active? It's definitely not a chakra drain... deterioration of the body perhaps? Hm, that would go with your low energy reserves from being chained to a wall from the last two weeks... oh, by the way, would you like some lunch?"

"No." Sirius snapped up at him, ignoring his body's protests that yes, he very much _would_ like something to eat and drink, thank you very much. "You bloody wanker! You kidnapped me!"

"To be fair, I tried to rejoin the leaf first." Orochimaru pointed out reasonably. "They rejected me. And are you sure? We've been occasionally feeding you a little bit here and there, but you should be pretty hungry."

"That doesn't mean you should kidnap me!" Sirius protested, ignoring the bit about the hunger as Orochimaru waved off his complaints.

"Of course it does. Otherwise when I brought you here, you'd be proclaimed a traitor, and I get the feeling you'd object to that." Orochimaru explained.

"I'm not objecting to being called a traitor, I'm objecting to _being_ a traitor!" Sirius snapped.

"Claim you were here under protest." Orochimaru said cheerfully, "It's even true! And besides, it's not like they wouldn't forgive you the second you reappeared, you're far too valuable."

"Wait, what?" Sirius frowned at him in confusion, sidetracked from his protests. "Is that why you thought they'd take you back?"

"Of course!" Orochimaru nodded. "The only reason they didn't is because they don't trust me, and I'm pretty sure they've already found a couple of my spies. And my old teacher hasn't had a chance to talk to Danzo, so he doesn't know what a good working relationship I have with the leaf."

"... What." Sirius said flatly.

"Well, you see, it's like this." Orochimaru explained, "The leaf kicked me out for doing experiments on people, because it's the village of tree huggers, and experimenting on people against their will isn't their style. I always thought that was a weakness, but now that I've seen how many people show up when you tell them that you're going to experiment on them... anyways. So I got kicked out because of that. And since I've already demonstrated a lack of respect for their rules, for all he knows, I'm just going to break them again.

The next problem is my village. They're loyal to me, not the Hokage, and he can't really have that, now can he? After all, I might just be trying to insert them into the population so I can have a coup. And there's enough of them that he can't just assign people to watch over my people without losing a significant chunk of income. He can't just restrict us either, because just being in the village at all is a major security risk. Why do you think Sand had to tell them about their Jinchuuriki being there? And furthermore..."

Sirius ignored Orochimaru's lecture as he glanced around, vaguely hoping he'd find a kunai, unlikely as that was. He couldn't cast any of his actually powerful spells when he was casting wandless and wordless. Luckily the wordless bit was easy to fix. Wandless on the other hand... hm. Actually, he wasn't sure how powerful he could get without a proper wand. He hadn't had too much trouble casting with the kunai, and as far as he knew, there really wasn't any reason for that to work. He absently noted to compare if he ever got his hands on a proper wand again.

"Look," Sirius finally said, "Why did you even kidnap me?"

"To experiment on you of course." Orochimaru replied, giving him a look. "I mentioned this in my rant. Well, actually, that's not accurate. It's more like I want to get you to teach my brand new minions how to get your magic to work properly. From these notes that I stole from the Hokage, (really, his security is like a sieve), you know how to do these things instinctively. Of course, since you're possessing Sasuke-kun, I find it much more likely that you simply learned all your skills during a previous life, and are just pulling them out when you need them."

Sirius frowned at him. "Yeah. But more importantly, you mentioned minions with magic?"

"Well I don't have any yet." Orochimaru admitted. "But I will soon! I've been distilling your blood to try to reverse engineer the genetic code required to use magic! It's going pretty well. Unless of course, I accidentally found the Sharingan instead, but that's pretty good too."

"... I doubt it's in my blood." Sirius said, disregarding the bits he didn't understand. What was a genetic code? "I'm just... possessing this body, remember?"

"But the body changes over time to fit the possessor." Orochimaru explained. "Our souls overwrite the body's natural state of being. We seem to actually carry our genetic codes within them! Why did you think I look like this, instead of like the grass ninja I took this body from?"

"I figured that was what the grass ninja looked like." Sirius muttered under his breath, trying to keep from getting a migraine at the absolute... well he wasn't really sure what to call this situation.

"Bah." Orochimaru gave a superior sniff. "But anyways, the body should change within a week or so. How you've managed to keep yourself looking like Sasuke-kun is another thing I'll want to know, by the way."

"Look, I didn't do anything!" Sirius protested. "I fell through the veil, next thing I know, I'm this kid. I didn't even realize I had magic until I got mad at Itachi!"

"So your magic is triggered by strong emotions, then?" Orochimaru cocked his head thoughtfully. "Hm. No that can't be right, you're fully capable of casting while you're calm. Maybe the gestures with the kunai are mnemonics to bring forth the correct state of mind?"

"No, you tend to lose control of your magic when you- no. I'm not discussing this!" Sirius protested. "Just let me go and I won't have to blast my way out!"

"Are you planning on getting violent?" Orochimaru asked, giving him a look that was crossed between amusement and anticipation. "Well, we can't have that! I suppose you were right not to trust my seal by the way. The Cursed Seal of Fire appears to have the ability to prevent your abilities from wo-" Sirius tossed a banisher at him. The Sannin dodged out of the way with an annoyed hiss. "Okay, the strain I found appears to be the one for the Sharingan. I really must keep that in mind. Also, my Cursed Seal of Fire can shut down, at the very least, the Sharingan. I think. Sasuke-kun, if you can copy this, I'll bring a message to leaf from you!" He raised his hands into the gestures for a basic earth jutsu. "Are you ready?"

"I'm not going to help you with your experiments!" Sirius snarled, glaring at him. He REALLY wished he had a wand. Or a kunai. Without even a kunai, the best he could do was the summoning and banishing charms, the mind arts, and a few household or emergency spells like unlocking and locking doors, slowing down falling objects, and cleaning things up. Apparition or portkey making was straight out, and they were honestly the only way he was going to get at the snake Sannin right now.

... Or he could just try and use tree climbing. He stepped over to the wall, and began to focus chakra to his feet, only to have it fail to respond. "What the...?" He muttered to himself, then scowled up at Orochimaru. "What did you do?" He demanded.

"Chakra containment seals!" Orochimaru grinned. "See how useful seals can be?"

"I'd be happier with it if I weren't the one stuck inside them." Sirius grumbled.

"I'm sure you'll get out eventually." Orochimaru looked supremely unconcerned. "You've done more difficult."

"No I haven't!" Sirius protested. "The most I've done is light people on fire!"

"I'm sure if you light enough things on fire, you'll make it out!" Orochimaru replied encouragingly, "Just keep burning things."

"Okay, A) There's nothing to light on fire. B) That doesn't make sense. C) You're insane. D) I don't have a kunai." Sirius explained after a few moments of staring at the gleefully deranged sannin who was looking down at him.

"Sure you do." Orochimaru grinned, "All you need to do is find it. I left some supplies down there for you!"

"... Accio Orochimaru's Supplies." Sirius tried cautiously. A few moments later, a small pile of ninja equipment appeared in front of him, including a book on seals. A piece of paper taped on the front suggested going to page 113. After grabbing a kunai and hitting it with a few diagnostic spells, Sirius cautiously opened it to the suggested page. It was the beginning of a chapter on countering seal arrays. Sirius glared up at Orochimaru, grabbed the equipment, then turned his own shirt into a portkey and went back home.

"Well that was rather rude of him." Orochimaru mused to himself.

Sirius on the other hand, was swearing at what appeared to be a massive seal that took up half a room. "Where the hell am I?" He finally yelled.

"In one of Master Orochimaru's diversion seals." A voice explained from behind him. Sirius spun, launching a trio of a stunner, bloodletting charm, and incarcerous. All three of them slammed into the one-way mirror from behind which the speaker was (presumably) watching.

"Who are you?" Sirius snarled.

"Ah, I'm afraid I can't tell you that." The voice said apologetically. "My services to Orochimaru require me to not be well known."

"... How did he manage to divert my Portkey anyways?" Sirius asked with a sigh.

"I'm afraid that that is classified." The man replied calmly. "In the meantime though, please be warned that you will be unable to use your bloodline abilities to travel out of the base until Master Orochimaru allows you to do so."

Sirius sighed, slumping against a wall. His magic had been his trump card, and it was galling to have muggles (even if they had this chakra thing of theirs) capable of countering it. He absently tried to dispel anything near by and tried another portkey, only for it to end up in the exact same place. Well. That was rather annoying.

"Ah! Sasuke-kun!" Orochimaru's cheerful and bloody annoying voice suddenly emerged from the other side of the window. "It's very nice to see that you've chosen to remain here with me! Now we can do even more experiments!"

"I told you I'm not helping you with your- wait, even _more_ experiments?" Sirius asked, sidetracked.

"Of course, Sasuke-kun!" Orochimaru said cheerfully, "You've already helped me so much! Now, as I've heard you want to become Hokage, I'd be glad to show you around the-"

"I don't want to be Hokage." Sirius interrupted. "That would involve being responsible."

"What? You don't? Kabuto, you said- oh! Wrong living weapon. So sorry about that, dear Sasuke-kun! To make it up to you, I'll teach you a jutsu! Now an image of me is going to appear in the middle of the room, just use your Sharingan to copy what I do, okay? Kabuto, watch his eyes." The last bit was obviously supposed to be a whisper.

"I'm not going to help you in your experiments!" Sirius repeated, tossing a blasting curse at the window, which disappointingly failed to do anything more than chip for about half a second before regenerating itself. "Let me guess," Sirius growled, "More seals?"

"Of course!" He could practically hear Orochimaru giving his creepy-as-hell smile. "I'm really starting to see why Jiraya liked them so much! Oh, by the way, Sasuke-kun. I don't suppose you know anything about your world's methods of achieving immortality?"

"I'm not going to help you become immortal. One immortal insane snake villain was enough, thanks." Sirius snapped.

"You know, Potter-san said the exact same thing?" Orochimaru mused loudly. Sirius's eyes snapped up towards the man.

"What?" Sirius's mind began racing. "What did you say?"

"Kukukuku." Orochimaru chuckled at him. "Tell you what, little Sasuke-kun. If you help me out, I'll use my spy network to contact Potter-san for you, how does that sound? I'll even let you send him messages!"

"... I... but..." Sirius stared at his own face in the gleaming mirror, wracked by indecision. On the one hand, Orochimaru was basically Voldemort. Of course, on the other hand, if Harry was here, he _really_ needed to talk to him and apologize for abandoning him so carelessly _againbutitwasn'tmyfaultthistimebutIshouldhavetakenBellamoreseriously_, and besides, Orochimaru didn't really seem like much a threat. He was a bit silly, and had a propensity for kidnapping people and experimenting on them, but his experiments seemed to be relatively benign so far. In fact, Sirius couldn't recall him actually hurting anyone.

He'd even tried to rejoin the leaf and admitted he was wrong! They just, you know, hadn't taken him back. Admittedly because of reasons that Sirius was pretty sure he could understand and back, even if they seemed to be one of those things that Dumbledore would have given you a disappointed look over. And besides, it wasn't like the choice was between trying to break out and cooperating with the experiments, it was between sitting in this cell and cooperating with the experiments! By cooperating, maybe he'd be able to find a way out, and get back. Now that Orochimaru had found a way to mess with his portkeys (he wasn't about to risk apparition, splinching sucked), he wasn't sure if he'd found a way to mess with a point me spell or something. He needed to familiarize himself with how to get home. Besides, it was for Ja-Harry. It was for Harry. Not for James. Well, yes, it was for Prongs as well, but only because Harry was his son, Harry wasn't James, he knew that. He did.

Orochimaru and his friend, Kabuto(?) waited patiently as Sirius tried to convince himself that he wasn't betraying the leaf by cooperating. Finally Sirius raised his eyes to look at where he was pretty sure Orochimaru was. "Fine." He said. "But... I've got conditions. And I want you to make an unbreakable vow, that you stop going after Konoha, and you leave my friends alone."

"Oh? What's that?" Orochimaru asked, sounding intrigued.

"It's an oath. If you break it, you die. Death himself appears to drag your soul to the afterlife." Sirius explained. Well, okay, it was only his grandfather who'd believed in Death showing up, but it sounded more dramatic than 'you fall over dead.'

"Unacceptable." Orochimaru said immediately, his voice for once deadly serious. And for that second, Sirius understood exactly how someone so... silly managed to be one of the most feared people in the Elemental Nations.

"I'll make one as well." Sirius offered, gritting his teeth. "All you have to do is not break the vow, and you'll be fine. And you can refuse it any time before it settles, so if I ask for a vow you don't want to agree to, you can just refuse and we'll negotiate the terms again."

"Then we'll negotiate now." Orochimaru's voice was still serpentine, but it'd lost all the humor and curiosity it had contained earlier. It wasn't just laced with the killing intent that Chakra users seemed to be able to emit, it embodied it. Was defined by it, and in turn, defined it. It was the voice of someone who was fully willing to murder everyone in his way without hesitation. It was, in the end, the voice of a ninja.

Naruto POV

It had been a week since the sound bastards had showed up, and that evil snake guy had started taunting the old man. After the old man said he wouldn't let them in, they'd left, all of 'em disappearing like smoke. It was all sneaky! As far as Naruto was concerned, ninja weren't supposed to be sneaky! It wasn't fair, how were you supposed to fight someone if they could just sneak away from you?

And if they'd only left, that wouldn't have really been bad. But they'd kidnapped Sasuke as well fifteen others, a few from each village. There'd been a giant diplomatic nightmare where everyone accused Konoha of trying to steal bloodlines or powerful ninja, and Konoha pointed out that stealing bloodlines wasn't it's style, and besides, hadn't they been paying attention during the fight? Even so, the exams had fallen apart and been called off. There were threats of war, and everyone was all depressed.

Even Kakashi had started showing up on time, his little orange book missing. He'd thrown himself into training his two remaining genin with a passion, leaving Naruto and Ino sore from the daily exertion. Neither of them could bring themselves to care though, they were both too worried about Sasuke.

Sasuke had been everything to him. Not just a friend, though he had few enough of those, but almost family. He'd practically raised him, even though he gave off the impression that it was too much trouble to even raise himself, and he'd watched over him and taught him some really awesome pranks! And even if he was a bit broody and emo, he was pretty awesome.

Sasuke had been the first one to accept him unconditionally, to ignore his insult and offer a hand in friendship. He'd cut through the bluster, and befriended the village pariah. Sasuke had protected him, guarded him, and taught him, more than anyone else ever had. And when they'd told him about the Kyuubi, he'd just waved it off. He'd even encouraged Naruto to draw on it's power! There was no way he'd let the snake bastard get his hands on him! He'd do anything to stop him!

And that was why he was here, meditating on top of the fourth's head when he should have been running laps or something. Because to get his friend back, he'd make a deal with the devil. Or more accurately, the nine tailed demon inside his gut.

He slowly sank into the meditative trance, fading out of the real world and into the dream-realm in which the demon stayed. A few moments later, he was standing in a massive sewer, in front of an even more massive cage. "Hey!" He yelled, hiding his heart ripping terror behind bravado. "You in there?"

"If I weren't, you'd have much bigger things to worry about than your friend." A voice snarled from deep within it. "What do you want, warden?"

"I want your chakra!" Naruto demanded, "You're in-"

"Shut up." The voice was calm, quiet, and held nothing but absolute contempt and power that hit the blonde like a sledgehammer. "Stop yelling. I can hear you just fine. And since you're not in mortal danger, we're perfectly able to discuss this like civilized people. Or, well, I am, since despite the world-walker's best attempts, you still seem to act like a savage."

"Eh?" Naruto stared at the Kyuubi in confusion. "What are you talking about? What world-walker? What's a world-walker?"

He heard a snort of annoyance from inside the cage. "Your stupidity is not my concern, warden. Now what do you want, and why should I give it to you?"

"I want your chakra!" Naruto repeated, "And you should give it to me, because it's rent!"

"Rent?" The Kyuubi sounded horrifyingly amused. "Fine then. Let's call it rent. I refuse to pay. What will you do, Warden? Will you evict me?"

"Neh?" Naruto frowned. "What's evict?"

"You can't possibly- it means to kick someone out." The Kyuubi said, sounding a bit resigned now. "It's what you do to someone who fails to pay rent."

"... Wouldn't that just be setting you free?" Naruto asked uncertainly. "I mean, that's kind of a bad thing, right?"

"Yes, it would be setting me free." The Kyuubi agreed. "And it _would_ be rather bad for anyone I designated an enemy."

"What's-" Naruto began before the Kyuubi interrupted.

"Chose. It means chose as. If I designate someone an enemy, I choose them as an enemy. Now. If you want my assistance, you will make me an offer I actually find worthwhile, or you will leave. And know this: Without my assistance, you are nothing. Your opponent, as ridiculous as he may act, is still one of the most powerful humans alive. Beyond that, he has transcended morality and mortality in equal measure. Or in words you can understand, he is evil, immortal, and powerful. Without my assistance, you will not so much as scratch him."

"What do you want?" Naruto finally asked.

"My freedom, warden!" The Kyuubi roared. Naruto shrank back as the beast's teeth slammed shut on the other side of the cage, revealing it's face, twisted into a hateful snarl. "The liberty to act as I chose, to move beyond this pathetically tiny cage! To walk beneath the sun, and feel ground beneath my paws! What the hell did you THINK I wanted?"

"I can't just let you go!" Naruto protested, "And besides, you'd just kill everyone!"

"Of course I would!" The Kyuubi snarled, "Why wouldn't I? You humans trap and imprison me, and expect what, gratefulness? I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the greatest of the tailed beasts! My power is infinite, and beyond your mortal understanding, and you expect me to let you pathetic humans go after this humiliation? After you've kept me trapped for four generations?"

"Then no!" Naruto said stubbornly. "Wait, four-?"

"Your mother, her mother, and her mother." The Kyuubi said dismissively. "Irrelevant."

"You knew my-" Naruto began before the Kyuubi let out an aggravated roar.

"IRRELEVANT! Listen, human. You have one minute to convince me to grant you my power. When you fail, I shall return to sleep, and ignore you until you die and they shove me into-"

"Can you possess a shadow clone?" Naruto asked quickly.

"What?" The Kyuubi blinked in surprise. "Why would I be able to possess a Shadow Clone?"

"Well, it's made of chakra, and so are you!" Naruto argued.

"... I suppose." The tailed beast finally decided. "If you used only my chakra. What benefit would that have to you though?"

"Well, shadow clones are made of chakra, right?" Naruto asked cheerfully, "And so are you! So I figure you can just use it however you normally fight!"

The Kyuubi considered it for a moment before nodding. "Fine." Naruto gave a gleeful yell before disappearing.

Kyuubi POV

He wasn't really sure how things had worked out quite that well, but the Kyuubi was about five minutes away from escaping. If the boy was actually stupid enough to make the shadow-clone out of nothing but pure Youkai, he'd lose control over it, making it as if the Kyuubi has created it. And if the Kyuubi sent his mind into it as well, then all he'd lose would be an admittedly significant fraction of his power. Of course, once he killed the boy, the power would disperse, but he'd be able to regather it pretty quickly.

He sank back into his cage, waiting for his warden to figure out how to use the shadow clone properly. It took him a few attempts, and the Kyuubi had to shove energy at him to let him find it, but eventually he made one out of pure Youkai, pure enough for the Kyuubi to- wait. He paused, glancing at the trail of energy that lead to the clone. It was making a path. A path through the gate that held him here. Admittedly, there was that annoying taint-bringer in the way, but it was still coming out the other end purer than he'd expected. And the boy _was_ doing something pretty stupid anyways...

But surely, it had to be a trap? There was no way the boy would be quite stupid enough to channel the Kyuubi's youkai so directly through his own soul, especially when there were so many other ways. And especially not in a form that would allow him to bring his own mind? He had to be trying to trick him, and see if he'd do what he promised. No, he was! He had to be! It had to be because of the Shadow Clone! The construct required a copy of the master's soul, and so the kyuubi's Youkai was dragged into that area as a side effect. He hadn't expected things to work out anywhere near that well, he hadn't even realized how the shadow clone worked. As far as he'd been aware, it just made a copy of the user's body. But this way... this way it was designed to send it's memories back to the user. And for that it needed a portion of the user's soul. Of course, there still might be traps, and the technique was designed to be relatively safe to use so there were likely failsafes...

It only took a moment to decide. The Kyuubi was ancient, after all, a bastion of might, and the boy was young and weak. Even if it was a trap, the Kyuubi was confident in his ability to emerge the victor. Worst came to worst, he could just go with his first plan. And besides, the boy _was_ rather stupid, even despite the death-tainted not-Uchiha's influence.

The Kyuubi still remembered being torn in half, forged into two separate beings, each half sealed within a mere mortal. What difference would it make if this half was split again? He concentrated, sending half his youkai down the path normally, to possess the shadow clone. The other half broke off after only a moment, delving into the boy's soul.

The boy realized after only a few moments what the Kyuubi had done, but by then, it was a few moments too late. The boy had not met enough mental conflict to fend off a being as ancient as the Kyuubi. He shattered the Warden's mind, then tore it asunder, allowing himself to flow into the remnants, and devouring them.

A minute later, a blonde boy opened his eyes, glancing at the patiently waiting shadow clone beside him.

"How are you feeling?" The shadow clone asked, looking perfectly innocent.

"Like the heir to our father's power." The blonde replied, his eyes flashing red. The shadow clone nodded, dispelling. The living corpse that had once been Naruto Uzumaki stood, now a puppet for the beast formerly contained within. He'd do the boy one kindness, he decided. He'd find the death-tainted not-Uchiha, Sasuke, and free him. But after that... well, after that, he was free, and had a brand new body.

Ino POV

Ino hissed through her teeth as she slowly chipped away the rune that Sasuke had engraved into the side of his door. And... explosion. She quickly used the replacement technique to get away from it, letting the log take the blast. Geez. What had he trapped his house with?

Well, at least the door was gone now. She'd buy him a new one later. Whistling cheerfully, she made her way in, then quickly made her way to his lab. If she wanted to get him back from Orochimaru, she'd need every advantage she could find. Naruto had the Kyuubi, so she needed something as well. And Sasuke's experiments seemed like they could get dangerous. After all, how often had he come in complaining that something exploded on him?

She glanced around the lab room, taking in the wall full of vials, the table covered in random nicknacks and notes, and the various objects mounted on the walls. Well. First thing first. Notes! Actually, no, those looked really technical. And long. First thing first. Potions! His potions were all labeled and usually had pretty self explanatory names.

Hm... Okay, blood replenishers (LQ). What did that mean? Low Quality maybe? She remembered him complaining about having to ad-hoc some of his potions... Well, she'd come back to those. Bone Regrowth (M) was next. Medium? Eh, his notes would probably explain. Alchemist's Fire (H). Well. She had no idea what that did. Good thing there were about fifty of them, she'd be able to experiment with a few first. And next was alchemist's frost. Unlike the tar-like alchemist's fire, these were a nice blue color. Oh~ The Alchemist's Lightning (M) was very pretty! Had he somehow bottled- oh! Well that explained it. The others probably just looked a bit odd because they were dormant or something. She'd have to figure out how to use them, but bottled fire and bottled ice seemed like they'd definitely be useful. Especially the bottled ice.

Hm. Essence of Dittany (Modified, LQ)? Well it was among the healing potions, so maybe it was for healing. She'd have to check his notes. She seemed to be deciding that a lot. Oh, here was a nice one! Sleeping Draught (Gas, H). If that worked, well, that should be _fun_.

Okay. Enough with the potions. She grabbed his notes, and started flipping through them. Looked like LQ, M, and H were quality descriptions. And... awesome. The notes had stuff like blast radius, and surface area recorded! Good, no need to waste potions with experiments then.

As for the other stuff... huh. She'd been wondering what the brooms were for! Apparently, the first one flew, but not too well, and the second one had a tendency to light itself on fire. She'd have to avoid that one. Or load it up with alchemical fire and send it into someone's base.

Ooh! Flaming Kunai! Definitely grabbing- wait, what? What was an Endless Bag? Surely it couldn't actually be endless? And apparently there weren't any problems with it... well. Apparently she'd be able to bring a lot more than she'd expected! She quickly hunted it down, then tossed everything she'd found so far into it.

Portkey anchor? Oh! That must have been what he was using to get the portkeys to aim them selves. And... it was missing. Damnit. Orochimaru must have destroyed them to keep Sasuke from returning.

Longsword of the Wraith? Now that was interesting... Huh. Cuts the connections between the mortal and spiritual, disrupting chakra formation and destroying spirits. Well. That was definitely something she needed. Even if she couldn't use it properly, being able to destroy spirits was never bad, especially if they didn't see it coming. And disrupting charka? Definitely useful. Into the bag.

Reinforced Clothing? Makes the wearer immune to fire, protects from weather conditions, about as good an armor as full plate... okay. See, that was useful. Of course, it would look atrocious on her, her blonde hair didn't match with that shade of blue-black at all! Still. She'd have to make some sacrifices. Hm? Oh, damn. Apparently it had a limited amount of energy when not in sunlight, and recharged with sunlight or... lightning techniques. With a bunch of side notes about exactly how much lightning. Okay, so next stop, pick up a low level lightning technique. In the meantime, into the bag.

Hm. Exploding Kunai. Maybe. It'd get rid of the warning of an exploding tag. Side pocket for those. Stick that shoots fire? Well, it wasn't like she knew any fire techniques off the top of her head, so why not? Side pocket. Oh! Instructions for brewing potions! Oh. But there was a warning that making them didn't work for people without the bloodline. Damn. Okay, next thing. Huh. Gauntlet designed to let people without the bloodline brew potions. Well that was convenient. But apparently untested and unfinished. Okay, so less convenient. Still useful though. She grabbed it anyways, tossing it and the book into the bag.

Prank stuff? Definitely useful. The difference between a prank and a trap was lethality. Admittedly, she wasn't good at either, but Naruto was, so he could use these. More explosives, into the bag. A starter tome on sealing? Bag. Just in case. Rune carving set and a book full of runes and their uses? Hm. That was probably limited to his bloodline... but on the other hand, she had that shiny new glove now! Might as well. Into the bag with that.

Ino glanced around the now almost-bare room with a sense of satisfaction. She had a bag full of experimental and dangerous things, her own ninja training, and mind control techniques to make sure it was enemy ninja doing the testing. Things would be fine. Now to go get Naruto...

AN: Yeah. The Kyuubi just ate Naruto's soul (Remember when I promised Naruto would end up being awesome? I hold that this only happens if the Kyuubi takes over. Seeing as he never really accomplishes anything without the Kyuubi's help, I think canon supports me on this.) This seems to be happening a lot in this fic. First, Sirius eats Sasuke, and now the Kyuubi eats Naruto. On a related note, this is why you don't trust ancient demons! Yes, Naruto's an idiot in this (trusting a demon immediately?). In canon, he's even proud of being an idiot! And yes, Shadow Clone probably doesn't work quite like that. Oh well. It does in this.

Also, did anyone else get the same thought (why would I help you?) when Naruto demanded rent? I mean, what was he going to do if the Kyuubi didn't pay up? Kick him out? The only reason the Kyuubi agreed was because rebuilding his body would be really inconvenient and painful.

Other notes: Harry has the Cloak. No one can track him or even detect if he's alive, even through mundane methods now that he's the Master of Death. On the other hand, up until Sirius rediscovered magic (Starting about four years after he was 'reborn'), he had, for all intents and purposes, become Sasuke Uchiha. When Harry showed up and tried to track Sirius, with magic, it failed because he was Sasuke now. However, the less precise spells knew that Sirius was alive. So the reason neither side is using magic to track down the other is because as far as they're aware, magic won't find the other guy (Harry thinks it's because Sirius was reborn, Sirius thinks it's because Harry isn't there).

Yes, there was a major mood whiplash here. The last couple chapters were amusing. The first part of this one was a bit amusing as well (Again, I blame Orochimaru). The rest of it... not quite as much. Though the Ino loadout scene might have been amusing, depends on your taste.

Yay for symmetry/mirror worlds! Sirius/Sasuke is loyal (or trying to be), while Kyuubi/Naruto is a traitor (or probably will be). Also, yes, I'm leaving Konoha. No, I doubt I'm going back anytime soon. And yes, all of the original Team 7 kids have been replaced with other characters. Maybe I should replace Kakashi with a time traveling Kakashi from the Canon timeline? See how things work out?

Also, I like this Ino much more than I liked Sakura. Of course, she's not going to end up with Tsunade's medical training (as far as I can see), but she'll still be able to at least hold her own.

Next note: Magic and Chakra can't affect each other in their raw forms. That is, you can't use a seal to stop a killing curse, and you can't use a shielding spell to stop someone from using the chakra spike that the Hyuuga use. Orochimaru is cheating. Hopefully, you can figure out the basics behind how. ^.^ Hint: It involves people lying to each other about what's going on, their motives, who they really are, etc.

Final Note: Assume that whenever something doesn't make sense, it's because someone's lying to someone else, or someone got the info wrong. Tell me anyways though, because I might have honestly screwed up. I've got a Beta now, but no one's perfect, especially since I can't actually tell him plot info or anything (Not knowing it myself)


	12. To Each His Own

Disclaimed

Chapter 12

_Ninja, Harry decided, sucked. Not as in they were bad at what they did, but as in they were _annoying. _The one he was fighting right now was too fast to hit, too strong to simply wait out, and generally too everything to take out with anything short of large scale destruction._

_Or... he could just use magic. Because if there was one thing magic was good for, it was breaking the rules. So the next time the ninja tried to do a hit and run, Harry apparated to behind him before flinging a stunner at his back. The ninja dodged (of course he did, he'd been warned by the noise), so Harry followed up with a flat out barrage of spellfire, flowing from one spell to the next until the whole battlefield was covered in brilliant lights._

_Each spell was weak, but without shields, not even a Body Flicker or a replacement could bring the man out of the barrage in time, and he emerged from it with jellied knees and rampantly growing teeth._

_Harry bared his own in a cruel smile, channeling what he remembered of Voldemort to try to look as intimidating as possible (because whatever else you said about the man, he could be terrifying even when he looked like a magical experiment gone wrong). "Surrender." He hissed, letting a bit of parseltongue leak into his voice, "For I am the Master of Death, and you are simply mortal."_

_The ninja threw a knife at him._

It had been almost three months since Sirius had awoken in Orochimaru's lab. Three months since he made his deal. Three months of experimenting, trying to find the limits of his abilities, and how they interacted with those of the ninja who already resided there. And three months of finding out that he'd been going about things in the wrong way.

He'd been trying to fight like a ninja, when, simply put, he _wasn't very good at that._ A spell moved quickly, but if a ninja saw it coming, it wasn't too much harder to dodge than any lightning technique. A cutting curse wasn't too much worse than a knife. A blasting curse, was just an explosive tag, but without the tag. Combat spells from home weren't devastating simply because people here had been raised around them.

What worked was joke spells. Prank spells. Non-lethal ones, modified to affect large areas, at the cost of power. But unlike at home, where power was important, here, power was irrelevant. Because here, magic didn't exist.

He'd never really _known_ what that meant, because his world didn't have scientists studying magic, and finding the idea was laughable! Muggles trying to decode the ideas behind magic? The purebloods would likely start tossing around unforgivables for it! But with Orochimaru, well, it was the only way to get things done, because the somewhat humorous man was first and foremost a scientist.

At home, everyone had magic. Well, everyone he ran into anyways. But here it didn't matter how much energy it took to break your curse, because no one could manipulate the energy like that anyways.

A full body bind could be broken with a simple finite, but finite here wasn't simple. It wasn't even possible. A body bind was the equivalent of permanent paralysis here. A stunner? It lead to a coma. Minor transfigurations would scar someone for life. After all how could they fight or even act when their hands had been turned into frogs?

So the problem, as it always had been, was hitting. At home, the problem had been shielding spells, which had to be shattered with raw power or exhausted with a barrage. Dodging was simply for between shields. Here, they dodged almost everything.

So how to fix that? Area effect spells. Spells that could strike the entire battlefield, even if they didn't strike particularly hard. Because Sirius's "Not very hard" was still enough to disable, and in a fight, being disabled was asking to be killed.

So Sirius made spells. A dancing curse that flew out in a massive cone, leaving nowhere to dodge except behind scenery. A blindness spells that would never penetrate a wizard's shield but flew at almost the speed of thought. A foot-to-hoof transfiguration that didn't create light, but could be countered by almost any spell that affected the feet. A spell to make someone grow hundreds of heavy feathers, but modified to hit a large area in return for lasting until the target exercised his own magic, their power overriding his. Spell locking was worse than useless, an active waste, no one could counter his spells anyways. Instead, all that mattered was what the spell did, and how likely it was to hit.

And now? Now his arsenal had been fixed, he knew how to fight ninja, he'd managed to get one of Orochimaru's spies to put a portkey anchor back at his house (A bit of legilimancy had taken care of Orochimaru's orders to the contrary), and he'd stolen every little bit of information that Orochimaru had about Harry (And apparently Naruto and Ino, who'd idiotically left the village and gotten themselves declared missing-nin. He needed to go drag them back.) It was a good thing you couldn't use an unbreakable vow on yourself, or this might have actually been a problem.

Kyuubi POV

Kurama snarled in fury as the idiotic child fought back again. Didn't he know when he'd lost? Why wouldn't he just stay locked up? Complaining about things being 'Not fair' and him being a 'body thief'. How did the human keep living anyways? He was supposed to be nothing more than a corpse! Even if he'd once been a person, he was dead now, dead and gone, and why did eating people not work any more? First those brothers who'd tried to eat their way out of his stomach, now this annoying child? How DARE he?

"You okay?" The blonde girl beside him asked cautiously. He glanced at her, letting out a grunt.

"I am fine." He grimaced.

"You've been snarling every five minutes." She pointed out, sounding worried, "I'm telling you this... blending you did, whatever it was, it's _dangerous._ You're acting... wrong, if that makes sense?"

"I am fine." He snapped, then sighed as she flinched. "Sorry. It's just... you know. Kyuubi. And it's too late now, we're blended."

"And it was a stupid idea, and Sasuke's going to kill you when he finds out about it." Ino frowned. Kurama twitched.

"I did it to protect him. I need to bring him back." The demon hissed.

"Hey, we're going after him, aren't we?" Ino said, her own voice slightly terse. "I'm just saying, we're both ninja! We've got his little surprises. We don't need the firepower that you're bringing us for now. You could have waited until we were closer. As it is, our chakra trail is a bit obvious."

Kurama growled, but couldn't argue. His own power was so much _more_ than most, of course it was easy to find. Again, he wondered why he'd bothered to even listen to his warden. Talking to people always lead to bad things happening. Which was why he was ignoring the human, even now. Although... huh. How was the human managing to talk to him anyways? He shouldn't be able to. Or at least, he shouldn't know how to, which really amounted to the same thing. Although now that he considered it... hm. Actually, talking _had_ got him out here...

"I need to take a break." Kurama grunted. "To stabilize. Try to pull my power back in. Give me a minute."

"Why didn't you do that a few months ago?" She demanded, annoyed. Kurama gave her a glare.

"I couldn't. Now I can. My power's sufficiently... calmed."

"Your chakra flares keep lighting trees on fire." She glared back. "We've actively antagonized at least three missing villages, and we've had to go missing nin to avoid this being tracked back to the leaf. And the leaf itself keeps sending hunter-nin after us, because they want their jinchuuriki back. And you keep assaulting them as well."

Kurama just grunted again. "Just give me a minute." He snapped. "If this works, it should fix all of our current problems. Besides, my appearance will change back to normal, so it's not like anyone will be able to blame us."

"Good." She said firmly. "Because your demonic fox features and hair made of fire are really damn obvious."

"I noticed." Kurama snarled back, before taking another deep breath. "Sorry. Let me just... talk to him."

"Who?" Ino immediately turned suspicious. "I thought you two blended?"

"That's the explanation that makes sense." Kurama agreed, "But the kyuubi is a beast made of pure chakra. Blending is different than you'd expect. Let me get our... problems fixed, and then we'll worry about it."

"Fine. But I want a proper explanation when you're done." She scowled, but finally _shut up._ Now if only he could make his warden do the same...

He closed his eyes, sinking back into his mindscape. He'd closed off all of his senses from the boy, as well as his thoughts. How the little thing could make himself heard at all, he couldn't imagine.

"You're still alive." Kurama said impassively, staring down at the tiny blonde ninja.

"Hell yeah I am!" The blonde shouted back from the other side of the bars "And-"

"Then why are you not in control? Why have you not contacted me?" Kurama demanded, letting his lips form into a snarl, "Do you know how much damage control I had to do? You are now a missing-nin, and have three villages attempting to murder you because I have insufficient control while in your body to prevent my chakra from destroying my surroundings!"

"I- er- but- but you put me here!" The boy protested. Kurama snorted. He hadn't shoved the boy into the prison, he'd _eaten_ him. But apparently, the seal had some sort of security that he'd missed.

"No, you put _yourself_ there." Kurama corrected. "Now get back into your body. Your friend thinks that we've blended, and that's why your abilities were so... unusual. Now that you have messed up so thoroughly, I will be able to speak with you perfectly."

Okay, so he'd lied a bit. The result was the same though, and this way, the child was more likely to trust him, and let him get into the shadow clone. Why he'd thought being limited to a pathetic human body was a good idea was beyond him. Their... biology! It was utterly disgusting.

"So... you didn't mean to steal my body? And- and lock me in here?" The boy asked, his eyes leaking.

"As if I would bother." The demon replied dismissively. "I will restore you to control. Do not lose it again. And make a shadow clone, I need to possess it. This time, I suppose I shall have to expend effort keeping you from falling back into the seal."

"But-" The boy hesitated, quite reasonably not trusting him, but also not being able to figure out his angle. Which made sense, because Kurama wasn't even sure what he was doing. His mind was still fractured, his sanity unstable from being torn in half by the shingami. "But if you want freedom so much, why are you getting back in your cage?" The boy asked, suddenly figuring out what he wanted to ask.

"I'm not." Kurama replied bluntly. "I've formed a permanent link when I burned through your mind to find your consciousness" Blatant lies, but the boy wouldn't know better, "You'll lose a couple memories" namely the ones that would make the child mistrust him "but I'll be able to use that path to possess a shadow clone at will." Okay, that was true, though not for the reason he'd implied.

"Okay." The boy nodded, then let out a yelp as Kurama threw him back into his own body. Now he just had to figure out what had gone wrong.

AN: Okay, significantly shorter than most of my chapters. This is more of an interlude, because I'm going to be disappearing for a bit (college is being... annoying), and wanted to get this out first. Apparently I lied last chapter. Naruto isn't dead. Reviews seem to have made my muse reconsider.

Also: I have bad grammer. I have bad spelling. I am aware of this. It's a result of my growing up in a household that's not exactly good at english, and mostly speaking bengali at home. It's why I recently got a beta. I'm planning on going back through this story and fixing stuff up with him before I continue it, so... uh... ignore a sudden fluctuation of updates, if it does that when I edit them. Sorry about that if it does. Probably not actually continuing until for a couple months at least.

Final Note: Kurama is crazy right now. It's the result of being torn in half by a death god. He's not making decisions well. Thus various, self contradictory things that he's done.

Nothing else to really say here. As per usual, any information given is limited to what that particular character knows/considers important. And also, other characters lie. A lot. Also, have questions or something you want to say? Please leave a review or PM me or whatever. I'll try to get back to you ASAP.


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